Joseph Sargent

Among those compositions that qualify as early-music “events,” Haydn’s The Creation surely ranks alongside such greats as Handel’s Messiah and the Bach Passions. This masterful oratorio was a hot ticket at its 1798 premiere in Vienna, an invitation-only affair that attracted throngs of uninvited common folk who crowded the streets around the Schwarzenberg Palace.

No one can accuse the Baroque ensemble Magnificat of lacking a sense of drama. Back in 2009, the ensemble made an unlikely pairing with the Carter Family Marionettes in Francesca Caccini’s La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’ Isola d’Alcina. In its upcoming March 18-20 concert set, a staging of Orazio Vecchi’s madrigal comedy L’Amfiparnaso (The Twin Peaks of Parnassus), Magnificat continues the theatrics by collaborating with three theater artists from the Dell’Arte Company for what’s sure to be a high-spirited affair.

It’s probably safe to say that few classical musicians work harder than Jeffrey Kahane. Best known locally for his decade-long tenure conducting the Santa Rosa Symphony, Kahane until recently managed to hold down two other conducting posts, at the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, while maintaining a thriving career as a pianist.

For three years after its founding in 2006, the New Esterházy Quartet pursued a single vision: to perform all 68 of Joseph Haydn’s quartets on period instruments. But, as it turns out, once was not enough for these determined performers. Having completed its ambitious goal in late 2009 (becoming the first North American quartet to do so), New Esterházy is now going another round with Haydn, this time pairing his music with other composers who dedicated quartets to him.

For many choral ensembles, producing a full concert season is plenty enough work to keep them occupied. Not so for Chalice Consort, which supplements its performance activities with wide-ranging efforts to revive forgotten early-music repertory. Led by renowned harpsichordist and UC Berkeley Professor Davitt Moroney, the ensemble displays some of these unearthed treasures in its opening 2010/2011 concert, “Music for Meditation and Devotion by Simone Molinaro,” to be presented Nov. 12-14 in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Palo Alto.

An oft-expressed frustration of the new-music scene is that world premieres generate eager support, but repeat performances of these works are far more elusive. Against these odds, Bay Area composer John Adams has managed to defy expectations with his Violin Concerto, a piece that has exhibited remarkable staying power since Jorja Fleezanis premiered it with the Minnesota Orchestra in 1993.

Chanticleer’s concerts often take on wide swaths of musical history, and the ensemble’s opening concert of its 2010/2011 season, “Out of This World!” is no exception. The celestial-themed program, presented Sept. 17-26 throughout the Bay Area, gathers together a far-flung repertory drawn from the Italian Renaissance, German Romantic, and American modern eras.

Too often the summer season finds music ensembles going on physical or artistic hiatus, taking an extended vacation or programming concerts heavy on lighter repertory. Not so the San Francisco Choral Society, a symphonic chorus under the musical direction of Robert Geary, which bucks the tide with substantial works by Beethoven and Britten on July 31 and Aug. 1 at San Francisco’s Calvary Presbyterian Church.