San Francisco Classical Voice

Laurel Ensemble
The Laurel Ensemble, established in 2005 and with membership that shifts depending on the needs of a particular concert, performs unusual works from Eastern Europe and adds to the festivities surrounding the 100th anniversary of Shostakovich's birth. Two works by Kodály and Martinu's Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano share the program with Shostakovich's Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57. Jan. 21, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (L.H.)

The Moscow Soloists
East meets West in part of the ongoing San Francisco Symphony Great Performers series. Violist Yuri Bashmet leads the Moscow Soloists, all graduates of the Moscow Conservatory of Music, and pipa player Wu Man in Tan Dun’s Concerto for String Orchestra and Pipa. The program also includes Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11 "Serioso," the Schubert masterpiece String Quartet in D Minor "Death and the Maiden" — both arranged by Mahler and examples of works he made "big" in an attempt to reach the audiences he thought they deserved. Another piece expanded to reach a larger audience rounds out the program: Britten’s Lachrymae for viola and strings. Jan. 21, 7 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$91, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org. (C.G.)

Early Romantics Festival
In the first concert in a series of four, festival host and featured pianist Mack McCray begins the Santa Rosa Symphony Chamber Players foray into early Romantic music. The concert, dedicated to Franz Schubert’s music, explores the sound language of narrative verse and song. The composer's most popular chamber piece, Die Forelle "Trout," is joined by Shepherd on the Rock, and Notturno. Jan. 27, 5:30 p.m., Sonoma Country Day School, Santa Rosa, $23-$31 (707) 546-8742, www.santarosasymphony.com. (C.G.)

Noe Valley Chamber Music
An eclectic program unites four Bay Area musicians Emil Milland, cello; Sarah Cahill, piano; Carey Bell, clarinet; and Paul Ehrlich, viola. The program includes the West Coast premiere of David Carlson's Quantum Quartet, as well as Lou Harrison's Suite for Cello and Piano, Milhaud's Elegie, a new work by Clare Twohy, and Britten's Sonata in C. Jan. 28, 4 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry, San Francisco, $15-$18, (415) 648-5236, www.nvcm.org. (C.G.)

San Francisco Renaissance Voices
Todd Jolly directs a concert titled "Mass for the Lunar New Year" — music to welcome the Year of the Boar (see review). The San Francisco Renaissance Voices will perform the rarely heard Charles d’Ambeville’s Messe des Jésuites à Pékin (Mass of the Beijing Jesuits), composed during the Baroque period. Performed in the alternatim style, it features traditional Chinese instruments and music between the five polyphonic choral sections. Jan. 20, 7:30 p.m., Seventh Avenue Performances, San Francisco, (510) 549-3864/(415)664-2543, www.sfrv.org. (C.G.)

American Bach Soloists
The superb singers and intrumentalists of ABS are joined by soloists from the Pacific Boychoir in a performance of four Bach cantatas composed for New Year's celebrations in Leipzig. Jan. 19, 8 p.m., St. Stephen's Church, Belvedere; Jan. 20, 8 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley; Jan. 21, 8 p.m. St. Mark's Lutheran Church, San Francisco; Jan. 22, 8 p.m., Davis Community Church, Davis; (415) 621-7900, www.americanbach.org. (M.B.)

Oakland East Bay Symphony's Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.
Michael Morgan and the Oakland East Bay Symphony pay tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. with a significant West Coast premiere: local composer Nolan Gasser's Black Suit Blues for baritone, tenor saxophone, chorus, and orchestra. Based on a poem by Robert Trent Jones Jr., Black Suit Blues incorporates blues and gospel styles in a classical framework (see feature article in this issue). Robert Sims and David Henderson are the soloists. The program opens with the orchestral version of the Prelude and "Liebestod" from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and closes with Schubert's Great C Major Symphony, also an OEBS premiere. Jan. 19, 8 p.m., Paramount Theater, Oakland, $15-$62, (510) 444-0801, www.oebs.org (L.H.)

San Francisco Symphony Plays Stravinsky and Mozart
Because Stravinsky and MTT make a such great match, the great Russian's music appears regularly on the Symphony's schedule. This concert, however, it's Ingo Metzmacher at the helm. He leads a program with two big and contrasting works, Stravinsky's austere Orpheus, ballet music from the late 1940s, and Mozart's unfinished Mass in C Minor, K. 427. Camilla Tilling, Sarah Fox, Timothy Robinson, and John Relyea are the soloists in the Mozart, which, unusually, is scored for two soprano soloists rather than a soprano and an alto. Jan. 18, 2 p.m.; Jan. 19-20, 8 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $31-$114, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org (L.H.)

Symphony Silicon Valley
Symphony Silicon Valley kicks off its fifth season with bluegrass fiddle champion (and jazz and classical violin master) Mark O'Connor. His own Old Brass fiddle concerto shares the program with Beethoven's "Lenore" Overture No. 3 and Dvorak's Symphony No. 7 in a concert conducted by Joseph Silverstein. Jan. 18-20, times vary, California Theatre, San Jose, $34-$76 (408) 286-2600, www.symphonysiliconvalley.org. (C.G.)

Haydn, Mozart, Falla, and Gerhard at the San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Symphony, under Lawrence Foster, plays a concert of glorious music without any discernable governing theme, and that's just fine. Haydn's 95th Symphony is cheek-by-jowl with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20, in which Radu Lupu is the soloist. Manuel de Falla's Suite from The Three-Cornered Hat coexists with the rarely heard 1965 Concerto for Orchestra by the Catalan composer Roberto Gerhard. Jan 24, 27, 8 p.m.; Jan. 26, 6:30 p.m. (Mozart and Gerhard only on the 26th); Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$114; Jan. 25, 8 p.m., Flint Center, Cupertino, $31-$57, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org (L.H.)

New Century Chamber Orchestra
New Century Chamber Orchestra visits three centuries in this concert. From the 18th century, they'll play Telemann's Ouverture des Nations Anciens et Moderns, from the 19th there's Mahler's arrangement for string orchestra of Schubert's great string quartet "Death and the Maiden." From the modern era, Adler Fellow Melody Moore sings Benjamin Britten's song cycle Les Illumninations, which sets poetry by Rimbaud. Jan. 25, 8 p.m., St. John's Presbyterian Church, Berkeley; Jan. 26, 8 p.m., First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto; Jan. 27, 8 p.m., Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Jan. 28, 5 p.m. Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, San Rafael; $32.50-$46.50, (415) 357-1111, www.ncco.org (L.H.)

Marin Symphony
In its third concert set of the year, the Marin Symphony highlights Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and a world premiere by Peteris Vasks, a Latvian composer who uses sounds to "express the spirit." The Magnum Opus comissioned Sala (Symphonic Elegy for Orchestra) is joined by Mozart's Symphony No. 35, which the composer himself called "Haffner" after the man who comissioned it. The final work on the program, Rachmaninoff's monumentally difficult Piano Concerto No. 3, will be tackled by guest pianist Orion Weiss. Jan. 28, 30, 7:30 p.m., Veterans Memorial Auditorium, San Rafael, $27-$65 (415) 479-8100, www.marinsymphony.org. (C.G.)

California Symphony: Rhythm and Rapture
California Symphony's 20th anniversary concert matches Beethoven's Seventh Symphony with a pair of American works. Leonard Bernstein's Age of Anxiety, a symphony for piano and orchestra after Auden's poem of the same name, features pianist Norman Krieger. Conductor Barry Jekowsky appears as the percussion soloist in Michael Torke's Rapture, a concerto for percussion. (Oddly, only one movement is being performed.) Jan. 28, 4 p.m.; Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m.; Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, (925) 943-SHOW, www.californiasymphony.org (L.H.)