Atlanta Fall arts preview: Classical music

Some of the most intriguing events on Atlanta’s fall classical calendar come from visiting performers and are OTP -- outside the city’s perimeter highway, in the suburbs that continue to grow in population and sophistication.

Spivey Hall, in Morrow, takes home the blue ribbon as the region's best small concert space. Its 20th anniversary season opens with what is sometimes pegged as the world's preeminent chamber music ensemble, the Takács String Quartet.

Originally of Hungarian origins but now thoroughly polyglot in membership and unified in blend, the Takács' musical style is hardened, serene, luminous, dense and often profound. The program spans old and new: Schubert's gripping "Death and the Maiden" Quartet and a recent work based on that classic, Daniel Kellogg's "Soft Sleep Shall Contain You." 8:15 p.m. Sept. 25. Spivey Hall, 2000 Clayton State Blvd. in Morrow. $50. 678-466-4200, www.spiveyhall.org

Another excellent smaller hall is the Bailey Performance Center in Kennesaw, which at 624 seats might be too confining for the force-of-nature voice of Measha Brueggergosman, a charismatic young Canadian soprano who charms with American folk songs and is edging her way toward heavy-weight Wagner operas. Her recital is part of Kennesaw State University's Premiere series. 8 p.m. Oct. 23. Bailey Performance Center, 1000 Chastain Road, Bldg. 30, in Kennesaw. $30. 770-423-6650, baileycenter.kennesaw.edu

A few other top picks:

● Pianist Joyce Yang has future stardom written all over her, as a silver medalist in the showy Van Cliburn 2005 piano competition in Texas and as New York's 2010 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner. Her recital is part of the excellent Chopin Society of Atlanta series.

7 p.m. Sept. 25. Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forest St., Roswell. $5-$50. 770-594-6232, www.chopinatlanta.org

● The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra has a new music director, the third in its history. Cleveland-based violinist and Baroque dancer Julie Andrijeski has worked with the ABO periodically over the past 15 years, primarily when dance has been part of the show. The group's harpsichordist, Daniel Pyle, says Andrijeski's tight fusion of music and dance "promises to bring new sweep and delight to the ABO delivery."

3 p.m. Oct. 17, Roswell Prebyterian Church, 755 Mimosa Blvd. in Roswell. www.atlantabaroque.org

● The Cobb Symphony Orchestra has grown up in the past decade, performing epic works and brimming with confidence. Led by conductor Michael Alexander, the CSO is even starting to program repertoire like its behemoth intown cousin, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The CSO's main classical season opens with a work strongly identified in these parts with the ASO, Chris Theofanidis' "Rainbow Body." The evening continues with Schumann's Piano Concerto, with Robert Plano as soloist, and closes with Dvorak's "New World" Symphony.

8 p.m. Oct 23 and 3 p.m. Oct. 24. Murray Arts Center,  2250 Stilesboro Rd. in Kennesaw. 770-429-7016, www.cobbsymphony.org

● Sonic Generator explores the technology side of contemporary classical music, with high-tech gadgetry that creates or enhances the musical performance. The season opens with a concert of solos and small chamber pieces, including music by Karlheinz Essl for electronics and a toy piano (at the very low end of the tech spectrum) and a new video by former Atlanta visual artist Amber Boardman to accompany music for flute by Gene Pritsker.

8 p.m. Oct. 7. Georgia Tech's Reinsch-Pierce Family Auditorium in the East Architecture Building, 245 4th St N.W., Atlanta. www.sonicgenerator.gatech.edu

● In December, violinist and Macon native Robert McDuffie played the world premiere of Philip Glass' Violin Concerto No. 2, called "The American Four Seasons," in Toronto. The music is minimalist Glass, of repeated arpeggios and slowly shifting harmonies. Now McDuffie is on a 30-city U.S. tour playing the concerto written for specially for him and paring it with its inspiration, Vivaldi's evergreen "The Four Seasons." That's a lot of solo violin playing for McDuffie. His back up band is the Venice Baroque Orchestra. The concert is on Emory University's Candler Concerts Series.

8 p.m. Nov. 19. Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, 1700 N. Decatur Rd., Atlanta. $10-$56. 404-727-5050, arts.emory.edu

● The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra opens its season with music director Robert Spano conducting an evening of standards: Berlioz's hallucinatory "Symphonie fantastique" and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9, nicknamed the "Jeunehomme" and performed with the popular Andre Watts as soloist.

8 p.m. Sept. 23 and 25 and 3 p.m. Sept. 26. Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org