Local classical music lovers will be making difficult choices this weekend when it comes to deciding which performances to attend. The Fairmount String Quartet, Lyric Fest, and the Academy of Vocal Arts’ Opera Theater will be hitting the boards, offering a robust selection of mountings and concerts.

 The Fairmount String Quartet will present “Legends” Saturday, Nov. 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin’s Lane, Chestnut Hill. The “Fairmounters” have been stretching the limits of the string quartet canon for decades, combining different genres of music and featuring under-represented composers, especially women, on their programs. 

 As they open their 40th anniversary season, the players will perform Beethoven’s String Quartet, Opus 18, No. 6; Arvo Part’s “Fratres;” and Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout.” The concert will be reprised Sunday, Nov. 17, at 3 p.m., in the Wynnefield Branch of Settlement Music School, 4910 Wynnefield Ave., Philadelphia. For more information, visit fairmountstringquartet.org.

 Lyric Fest, the vocal/piano ensemble founded and directed by Chestnut Hill pianist Laura Ward and East Falls mezzo-soprano Suzanne DuPlantis, will present “Nevertheless, She Sang,” an exploration of women composers and poets. The program will be performed twice: Saturday, Nov. 16. At 5 p.m., in the main sanctuary of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 625 Montgomery Ave., Bryn Mawr; and Sunday, Nov. 17, at 3 p.m., in the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, 21st and Walnut Streets. For more information, visit lyricfest.org.

 The Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce St, Center City Philadelphia, will open its 90th anniversary season of staged operatic productions Saturday, Nov. 16, with a rare mounting of Charles-Francis Gounod’s “Faust,” running through Dec. 3. The “Opening Night Celebration” starts at 5 p.m. with cocktails, a formal dinner, and then the performance. For more information, call 215-735-1685 or visit avaopera.org.

 Solemn Choral Evensong

 St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill, celebrated a Solemn Choral Evensong for the Feast of All Souls (The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed) Sunday afternoon, Nov. 3. The service took place following the traditional dates of the Feasts of All Saints (Nov. 1) and All Souls (Nov. 2) and drew a substantial congregation that heard the parish’s Adult Choir sing music of exceptional beauty presided over by the parish’s rector, the Rev. Eric P. Hungerford.

 The Holy Catholic Church of Rome has traditionally taught, “The practice of recommending to God the souls in purgatory, that we may mitigate the great pains which they suffer, and that He may soon bring them to His glory, is most pleasing to God and profitable to us.”

 Although the belief in and practice of Purgatory was one of the casualties of the 16th century Protestant Reformation, it was never completely eliminated in England, which had been one of the most faithful to Rome of all the Churches that severed their ties with the Holy See. When, during the middle of the 19th century, the “Tractarians” of the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement strove to bring back the practice of prayers for the faithful departed on All Souls Day, the impetus that was launched within the Church of England and the entire Anglican Communion marked both All Saints and All Souls with their own liturgy and music.

 With the help of organ scholar Andy Brown, parish director of music and organist Andrew Kotylo led his 30-plus-member Adult Choir in music by Leo Sowerby, Sir Edward Elgar, William Byrd, Richard Shephard, Basil Harwood and Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur. 

 In a fascinating manifestation of the connections that still exist between Rome and Canterbury (the primatial see of the Church of England), the text of the opening “Introit” by Elgar was written by St. John Henry Cardinal Newman, the Anglican priest and theologian who “swam the Tiber and converted to the Catholic Church” in 1845. The words offer sublime reassurance of the heavenly reward of all faithful believers, and Elgar’s music is superbly fashioned to support, enhance and project them. Kotylo and his choristers sang their musical manifestation with flawless blend, immaculate balance, broad dynamics and pristine tuning.

 The service’s two major choral works were the “Magnificat” and “Nunc dimittis” from Shephard’s “Canticles in Memoriam Lionel Dakers.” Kotylo and the Adult Choir projected their warm harmonies, lyrical melodies, and expert word-setting with impressive technical prowess and diverse emotional delineation. Harwood’s powerful “O How Glorious,” the anthem at the Offertory, was given a stirring reading.

 St. Paul’s Church will host “A Hymn Festival of Thanksgiving” Sunday, Nov. 17, at 4 p.m. with organist John Schwandt. The church’s annual “Candlelight Service of Lessons & Carols” is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 15. At 5 p.m. For more information visit stpaulschestnuthill.org.

 You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.