Janos Gereben

John Adams is baaaack in his “fun chamber,” with a spirited, quasi-redux chamber symphony that pulsates with joy.

There are bigger spectator sports, but none with more participants than choral singing. Surprising but true: more Americans sing in choruses, chorales, choirs, glee clubs and other vocal groups — both professional and amateur — than engage in football, baseball, tennis, even Greco-Roman wrestling.

No music is an island and the San Francisco Symphony's performance of Mahler's Sixth Symphony is a case in point.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the S.F. Symphony Mahler Machine provide a deeply moving experience in a presentation of the Ninth Symphony, one that audiences can't help but celebrate.

After all these years, Garrick Ohlsson continues to wow, he's a pianist whose career you can be willing to bet on, a technically superior artist with the hands to create transporting sounds.