Weekend's Activities in Brief

The Baltimore Symphony under John Adams:

• Adams' My Father Knew Charles Ives: Tight, surprisingly affecting (especially the hazy jazz material floating in and out of the second movement), deeply enjoyable.
• Beethoven's 7th: Spirited but not detailed.

The American Visionary Art Museum: Stocked with often fascinating outsider art and/or neat contraptions but too heavy on the rah-rah, pan-spiritual crap in presentation. Also, lots of religion-themed Post Secret cards.

The National Symphony under Leonard Slatkin:

• Jefferson Friedman's Sacred Heart: Explosion: Coincidentally also outsider art-themed; like warped Lord of the Rings music; somewhat bloated.
• Beethoven's 9th: Briskly paced, full of good cheer, extremely crowd-pleasing. Niftily overemphasized piccolo trill at the very end.

The Steelers, as watched from the Pour House on Capitol Hill: Excellente.