From von Biber’s bombastic Battalia to the subtleties of a recent Andrew Norman piece, the NCCO played everything with grace and beauty.

High modernism is alive and well and cellist Karttunen brought some fine, new examples to Cal Performances.

The veteran ensemble champions new and vintage works for the modern brass quintet.

Louis Spohr hits a double but Mendelssohn crushes a surprise home run with an early piano quartet.

Meanwhile, conductor Vasily Petrenko made a meal of Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony, leading the San Francisco Symphony’s weekend program.

The acclaimed young ensemble exhibit technical mastery and nuanced interpretations of Beethoven, Haydn, and Shostakovich.

Herbert Blomstedt guides a taut, inspired reading of Beethoven’s masterpiece.

In a marathon program, five performers find distinctly different musical expression in the composer’s piano studies.

New Piano Collective’s second inaugural program ranged from the sublime to the silly.