Conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini is the imaginative musician who founded Concerto Italiano 28 years ago, put out a series of brilliant recordings of Monteverdi and madrigal repertory, and, after expanding into instrumental repertory, won new acclaim with a series of Vivaldi operas on the Naive label. Olivier Cavé is a Swiss pianist/harpsichordist with highly praised albums devoted to Domenico Scarlatti and Muzio Clementi under his belt.
If your first thought is that these two are showing up at the Philharmonia Baroque concerts this month, you’re so 2008. Get with it: They’re going to play late Mozart and Haydn with the San Francisco Symphony. Although it isn’t one of the most hyped concerts this year, it is filled with promise. The Symphony musicians are plenty good enough to take in what Alessandrini might ask of them. Will it be revelatory or business-as-usual?