San Francisco Classical Voice

Gwendolyn Mok and Joseph Frank
The centerpiece of this program is Maurice Ravel, whose compositions will be performed by one of the world’s most distinguished interpreters of his piano music: Gwendolyn Mok. Two special guests join her. There's a special guest to Old First Concerts — an 1875 Erard piano, like the one owned by Ravel himself, and tenor Joseph Frank, who will accompany Mok in a program that includes Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin and Miroirs for Solo Piano, Francis Poulenc's Tel jour, telle nuit for Voice and Piano, as well as selected songs by Henri Duparc. Feb. 10, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (C.G.)

"Hook, Line, and Singer II"
International opera star and recitalist John Duykers performs a romantic evening of love songs. The tenor is joined by the Bay Area's Ann Moss, Brian Leerhuber, and Steven Bailey (among others), in what has become a San Francisco Song Festival annual tradition of exploring recent works by American composers. The program includes the winning pieces from SFSF's 2006 American Art Song Competition for Composers, including Drifts and Shadows by Tom Cipullo, the recipient of the prestigious Phyllis C. Wattis Prize for song composition. What better way to end an evening of love songs? Follow it with a wine and cheese reception. Feb. 10, 8 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music Recital Hall, $10-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.sfsongfestival.org. (C.G.)

Dawn Upshaw
Three-time Grammy winner Dawn Upshaw returns to Berkeley. The soprano, equally at home with the music of Mozart and Gershwin, will sing a whopper of a program with works by 12 composers. Some highlights: Osvaldo Golijov's Lúa descolorida, three works by Stephen Foster that open the concert, several by Modest Mussorgsky, and a few from William Bolcom's Cabaret Songs. She is joined by Molly Morkoski on piano. Feb. 11, 3 p.m., Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley, $34-$68, (510) 642-9988, www.calperfs.berkeley.edy. (C.G.)

Guzik Foundation Award Winners
Every year, hundreds of Russian music students compete for the Guzik Foundation Awards, named for Bay Area philanthropist, high-tech industrialist, and Russian emigré Nahum Guzik (see last year’s review). This February several of the young winners perform in the gilded splendor of the Florence Gould Theater. Feb. 16, 8 p.m.; Feb. 18, 2 p.m.; Florence Gould Theater, Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, $22, (415) 392-4400, www.chambermusicsf.org. (M.B.)

Opera Center Festival of Song
Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song, a rich, iconoclastic mix of classical and popular music, will have its annual West Coast edition again, with San Francisco Opera Center singers Rhoslyn Jones, Katharine Tier, Noah Stewart, and Jeremy Galyon. Composers of the works on the program include William Bolcom, John Musto, Adam Guettel, John Corigliano, Ricky Ian Gordon, Lee Hoiby, Richard Thomas, and others. Feb. 18, 5:30 p.m., Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, $20, (415) 864-3330, www.sfopera.com. (J.G.)

Beethoven in the Evening
After a promising start in December (see review), the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble extends its "Beethoven and His Legacy" series to a third concert in Berkeley. A quartet from the Ensemble plays Beethoven's Op. 131, and compares and contrasts it with new works by Yu-Hui Chang, Sam Nichols, and Bill Beck. Feb. 6, 8 p.m., Berkeley City Club, Berkeley, $20, (510) 525-5211, www.berkeleychamberperform.org. (M.B.)

martha & monica
Martha & monica present a diverse program of Russian composers that paints a picture of the post-Prokofiev and Shostakovich generation. There's medieval chant, Baroque and Classical forms, as well as jazz in the music from five composers who lived under the repressive former Soviet regime: Alfred Schnittke, Galina Ustvolskaya, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov, and Arvo Pärt. Feb. 10, 8 p.m., Trinity Chapel, Berkeley, $8-$12, (510) 549-3864, www.trinitychamberconcerts.com. (J.G.)

Emerson String Quartet
Be prepared to hold your breath for a long but enthralling evening. The Emerson Quartet is playing all three of Beethoven’s Rasumovsky Quartets in one concert. Normally, just one of those is the major work on any concert. If there are performers who can bring precise eloquence to all three in one swoop, these are the ones. Follow up that concert with a different all-Beethoven program in Mill Valley the following evening. Feb. 10, 8 p.m., Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Stanford, $23-$50, (650) 725-2787; Feb. 11, 5 p.m., Mt. Tamalpais Methodist Church, Mill Valley, $20, (415) 381-4453, www.livelyarts.stanford.edu, www.chambermusicmillvalley.org. (D.B.)

Basically British IX
Well-known Bay Area musicians Joseph Edelberg, violin; Adrienne Herbert, violin; Elizabeth Prior Runnicles, viola; Thalia Moore, cello; and John Parr, piano take on the ninth concert in the Old First Concerts Basically British series. The first great piano quintet by a major composer, Schumann's Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, shares the program with Delius' Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, and Elgar's Piano Quintet in A Minor. Feb. 17, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (C.G.)

Martha at the Pocket Opera
Continuing in its tradtion of adventurous programming, the Pocket Opera, now in its 30th season, will perform Friedrich von Flotow's Martha. Pocket Opera has made an impact far beyond its size by introducing a long line of young singers and musicians (of the Pocket Philharmonic) to Bay Area audiences. Flotow's Martha, which tells the story of a woman whose money brings her melancholy and her adventures into servitude bring her smiles, will be perfomed at several Bay Area locations. Feb. 9, 11, 24, times vary, Florence Gould Theater, San Francisco; Feb. 18, 2 p.m., Napa Valley Opera House, (707) 226-7372; March 11, 2 p.m., Osher-Marin Jewish Community Center, (415) 444-8000, $18-$35, www.pocketopera.org. (C.G.)

The Merry Widow
Continuing its tradition of upholding light opera and music theater, the Lamplighters perform Franz Lehár's romantic The Merry Widow. With a rotating cast and performances at three Bay Area venues, everyone has a chance to catch the opera named after a corset that Lana Turner, who starred in the original film of the same name, famously noted: "I am telling you, The Merry Widow was designed by a man. A woman would never do that to another woman." Feb. 10, 8 p.m., Feb. 11, 2 p.m., Napa Valley Opera House, $35-$40, (707) 226-7372, www.lamplighters.org. (C.G.)

La traviata at Opera San José
Verdi's La traviata comes to Opera San José for eight performances over two weeks. In terms of singing and acting, Verdi asks a lot of the principal character Violetta, who will be played first by Talise Trevigne and later by Rochelle Bard. In addition to a powerful libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, La traviata, based on Dumas' La Dame aux Camélias, includes some of the most unforgettable music in all of opera. Feb. 10-25, times vary, California Theatre, San Jose, $65-$85, (408) 437-4450, www.operasj.org. (C.G.)

Young Caesar
San Francisco Conservatory of Music BluePrint series Artistic Director Nicole Paiement and the Ensemble Parallèle stage the world premiere of Lou Harrison’s puppet opera Young Caesar, about Julius Caesar's love affair with King Nicomedes of Bithynia, timed for what would have been the 90th birthday of the composer. Feb. 16-17, 8 p.m., Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, $45-$60, (415) 978- 2787, www.sfcm.edu. (M.B.)

Sounds New
All-new works will be performed by the Sounds New Ensemble, known for its deft ability to interpret contemporary compositions with subtlety and understanding. The group — Brooke Aird, violin; Catherine Allen, cello; Elinor Armer, piano; Herb Bielawa, piano; Anna Carol Dudley, soprano; Richard Mathias, clarinet; Deborah Schmidt, flute — is dedicated to discovering and performing new music by American composers. The program will feature everything from solos to quintets, including two world premieres: the hilariously named Sloppy Floppy Copy by Herb Bielawa and Dancing at the Pink House by Howard Hersh. Feb. 16, 8 p.m., Old First Church, San Francisco, $12-$15, (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org. (C.G.)

French Feast for the Ears
Lovers of orchestration should be delighted with this all-French concert, which includes Claude Debussy’s Nocturnes and Paul Dukas’ forever Fantasia-wedded L'apprenti sorcier. I’m looking forward even more, however, to mezzo Susan Graham’s interpretation of Hector Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été. Best of all is the first San Francisco Symphony performance of any work by one of the best of all orchestrators, Charles Koechlin (1867-1950). His Monkey Scherzo (Les Bandar-log) makes fun of twelve-tone-ism and Bachian counterpoint while suffusing its sound world with exquisite evocations of the jungle. MTT conducts. Feb. 7, 8, and 10, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, $25-$114, (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org (J.D.)