Previews

Certainly you’ve heard Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, both live and on recordings, over the years. But have you heard it played on a violin that inspired an Academy Award–winning movie?

That’s what’s in store at the Marin Symphony program coming up on Nov. 1 and 3.

Natasha Paremski, a fine pianist who captivated audiences in her debut recital here a year and a half ago, returns to the Bay Area to play Rachmaninov's beloved Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Peninsula Symphony. Mitchell Sardou-Klein's hardworking group are also presenting Shostakovich's whimsical Symphony No. 9 and Wagner's Overture to Rienzi.

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The San Francisco Symphony has an unabashedly populist side that is refreshing and possibly also remunerative — not a small consideration for an expensive institution. Celebrating the opening of the Walt Disney Family Museum with music from classic Disney films will make a pops concert of great variety, however.

Fantasy (or phantasie) and the unusual is the theme of the day when the Gold Coast Chamber Players perform at Noe Valley Chamber Music Se

Some people are born to pound their way through life. Take Loren Mach, for example.

If your kids are still too young for the traditional concert hall experience, they can certainly shake, rattle, and roll at The Crowden School’s free Community Music Day — the biggest classical jam session around for kids up through the age of 6, on Oct. 25 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The enterprising young choral ensemble Chalice Consort sure dreams big.

The former Santa Cruz Chamber Orchestra is kicking off its first season under a new name with two energetic and attractive modern works for strings and trumpet: Arthur Honegger’s Symphony No. 2 and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1, the latter with pianist Brenda Tom.

You may not have heard Edward Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for String Orchestra, Op. 47, which opens Itzhak Perlman's concert with the San Francisco Symphony next week. But its neo-Baroque form and polyphonic wizardry make an interesting counterpoint with the following work on the program, Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2.