Previews

Summertime typically signals a period of downtime for classical music, as many ensembles enjoy a well-earned hiatus or shift their programming toward lighter fare. Not so for the San Francisco Lyric Chorus, a talented choir under the direction of Robert Gurney.

Among the gems in the crown of the San Francisco music scene are the Friday evening and Sunday 4 o’clocks at Old First Church. Those offer chamber music and recitals of quality programming by some of the Bay Area’s finer musicians — and at an exceptionally affordable price, too.

After the epic lavishness of Turandot, Festival Opera isn’t looking to bowl you over with its upcoming production of Gounod’s Faust. But while the physical design of Faust takes the opposite tack from Puccini’s blockbuster, the end result promises to be just as impressive.

The Web site for an upcoming sfSound concert on Aug. 9 includes a video of Karlheinz Stockhausen, a famous German composer, speaking about human evolution. The idea of evolution suits this concert on two levels.

Every time Robert Geary returns to Giuseppe Verdi’s stirring Requiem Mass, “it’s deeper in my blood, but I have to prepare and rethink it. And that’s wonderful,” says the noted artistic director of the 200-voice San Francisco Choral Society.

Traditional notions of “summer fun” evoke a host of images: beach balls, barbecues, baseball. Music lovers should add to this list of B’s the name Banchieri — as in Adriano Banchieri, an Italian Renaissance composer and a pioneer of the madrigal comedy, a collection of madrigals strung together to present a comical story.

This weekend, you can take a picnic, and bring as many friends as you like to enjoy a free performance in Berkeley’s John Hinkel Park. This might evoke memories for some of a small artistic collective that began in 1974 and has now grown to become Cal Shakes. But the latest free show to encourage lovers of the performing arts is called Open Opera. Founded in 2008 by Olivia Stapp. Ellen St.

Festival-goers may not mind that, for one night, Carmel Bach becomes Carmel Beethoven. David Breitman, who is on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory and is an expert on historical performance techniques, plays Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto (on a modern piano). And the orchestra, under Bruno Weil, finishes up with one of the composer's most popular symphonies, the “Eroica.”