Previews

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, the music director of New Century Chamber Orchestra, has made it clear that she doesn’t want her orchestra pigeonholed. So when she signed up her pal William Bolcom to be the orchestra’s featured composer this year, she gave him the widest latitude possible in his commissioned piece.

Concerto Köln belongs to that rare breed of early-music bands that can make a beloved favorite sound remarkably fresh. Handel fans, for instance, may know them as the orchestra for Harmonia Mundi’s 1991 recording of Giulio Cesare with Jennifer Larmore and Barbara Schlick, still the pacesetter on that front.

Music at Kohl is now in its 27th season of presenting music and musical education in the South Bay. The current year’s program includes performances by such well-known ensembles as the Borealis String Quartet, the Ives Quartet, and the Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players.

Forty-nine minutes into our chat about the San Francisco Symphony Chorus’ Spring Concert, Music Director Ragnar Bohlin addresses what makes him tick.

Compared to Madama Butterfly and La Bohème, Puccini’s La rondine (The swallow), which premiered in 1917, is certainly a less-performed work, though it can hardly be called obscure.

If you enjoy being dazzled by virtuoso musical fireworks, then the upcoming program by the American Bach Soloists is surely designed with you in mind.