CHAMBERS OF AURAL PLEASURE. Perhaps, dear reader, you are already aware of my affection for the Gotham Chamber Opera. If such is the case, then you will understand why, as I type this missive, I am also turning cartwheels in my excitement over the recent availability of tickets to the company's next production: Rossini's Il Signor Bruschino. Perhaps we shall encounter each other there, at the landmark Harry de Jur Playhouse, come midwinter.

What's that, you say? This chamber opera news could not possibly explain the somersaults upon which I embarked after completing the preceding paragraph? Right you are! I'm also excited about two other chamber music treats that await the adventuresome aural connoisseur.

On the afternoon of November 12, 2006, what could be more satisfying to the ear than a visit to the great Bronx home of Andrew and Beth Meyers for a program of chamber music by Foote, Mozart, Prokofiev, and Oliver Caplan as part of the new season of the Bronx Arts Ensemble? Beats me! Contact the presenters to indicate your interest in attending.

Just days later--on the evening of November 15, 2006--The Grand Tour Orchestra plays early music at The Theater of The Academy for Advanced Italian Studies at Columbia University. On the program: two works by Bachs (Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel) as well as a symphony by Johann Gottlieb Graun and the presumably long-overdue US premiere of Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht's Concerto Concertante for 2 flutes, 2 violins, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, obbligato cello with strings, 2 horns and continuo. It's well worth a try: The hall is beautiful, the horns are super-freaky, and the ensemble has demonstrated great energy and great promise. A pre-concert talk is also scheduled.