Jaime Robles

Old First Concerts on Jan. 24 will do what it does best: promote talented, emerging young musicians, when it presents pianist Elizabeth Dorman in chamber concert with cellist Robert Howard and violinist Dan Carlson.

Newly graduated from San Francisco Conservatory, Dorman has won numerous competitions throughout the Bay Area — such as the Keyboard Educators’ Competition, the Ross McKee Competition, and the Young Artists Beethoven Competition.

The first musical loves of Dominique Pelletey, the visionary behind Chamber Music Day, were folk, punk, and experimental pop. His current love, classical chamber music, offers him the same intimacy, approachability, and focus, but has given him more through its complexity and beauty. His passion for this loveliest and most protean form of classical music has been the driving force behind the development of the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music’s free all-day concert, now in its second year in San Francisco and organized by Pelletey, the organization’s executive director.

When L’Allegro, il penseroso, ed il moderato premiered in Brussels in 1988, it was the Mark Morris Dance Group’s first work as the resident company of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, a post previously held by Maurice Béjart’s Ballet of the XXth Century. That Morris rose to the competition by creating an enduring and winning work was proved again at Zellerbach Hall this past weekend, presented by Cal Performances.

The symphonic chorale of the Oakland-based Cantare Con Vivo paid homage to Felix Mendelssohn on Saturday by performing one of his last compositions, the massive, two-hours-plus oratorio Elijah. Artistic Director David Morales led the excellent chorale and orchestra.

It's often remarked that Benjamin Britten was fascinated by innocence, and especially the fall of innocence, yet it's seldom noted that he was also fascinated by the supernatural. Maybe it's more accurate to say that his music often evokes the supernatural — shimmering through strange dissonances and ethereal harmonies.

The libretto of Gaetano Donizetti's 1832 opera L'elisir d'amore (The elixir of love) has wide appeal. Many of us have suffered the torture of being in love with someone who doesn't know we exist, and worse, wouldn't be interested if they did. But even more of us have grown up with the story of the young simpleton who, through no other talents than his own uncanny foolishness and constant good nature, garners heaps of gold coins and the kingdom's most beautiful maiden at story's end.