Orchestra

Pretty much the pick of this week's concerts is the San Francisco Choral Society's full-scale production of Mendelssohn's oratorio, Elijah.

How often does our City’s Symphony turn 100 years old, and how often can we exult classical music en masse? Here’s the chance to celebrate the longevity and essence of the San Francisco Symphony, with a free, live concert carnival in the Civic Center Plaza.

Cabrillo wraps up its season with new works that surprise, delight, and sometimes frustrate.

When a composer has a great dance tune with no place to go, it's time to write a serenade. Serenades are on the populist end of classical music, which is why the San Francisco Symphony is devoting one of their summer pops concerts to them. Eine, kleine Nachtmusik is a case in point: We don't know why Mozart composed it, but since tunes dropped from his brain like water droplets off a wet collie, he didn't really need a reason, did he?

Acclaimed cellist Zuill Bailey talks with SFCV about his love-at-first crush with the cello, doing what he loves for a living in El Paso and Alaska, his passion for musical outreach programs, and working on the television series Oz.

The Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra elegantly paired searing orchestral music with well-etched singing in its performance of Verdi’s Requiem.

This week the extremely cool Anne Sofie von Otter visits the San Francisco Symphony to perform songs by Grieg and Sibelius. Sibelius' songs are achingly Romantic and deserve to be better known, but the concert promises more than that.

What other touring orchestra posts its country's flag on stage when performing internationally? Israel's nationalistic pride is well known, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) is a particularly special source of honor for Israelis.

The Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s great orchestras, plumbs the depths and heights of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, in its final Berkeley performance Sunday.

What sacred music do you set alongside Mozart’s great Requiem in a concert? The San Francisco Symphony movingly squared the circle Thursday with works by Morton Feldman and Mindaugas Urbaitis.