Beethoven’s Mass becomes a staged multi-media experience, complete with light show and wandering soloists.

A virtuoso pianist makes a rare Bay Area appearance, richly rewarding her audience with evanescent renditions of a Schubert sonata and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

Playing a 1738 Haarlem organ, Jonathan Dimmock delivers heaven-storming renditions of Bach, alternating with sundry delights.

Earplay's concerts at the ODC, focusing on works for solo strings, demonstrates that intellect and inspiration are not incompatible, borne out by repertoire choices and stunning performances.

The Berkeley Symphony, in its third season under Joana Carneiro, continues to celebrate young talent in a concert that was a victory for composer, performers, and audience.

What sacred music do you set alongside Mozart’s great Requiem in a concert? The San Francisco Symphony movingly squared the circle Thursday with works by Morton Feldman and Mindaugas Urbaitis.

If you wanted to come up with a pairing of diametric opposites on a piano recital, you might choose the complete Ligeti Études and Bach’s Goldberg Variations, two monumental works that at first glance seem psychologically light years apart. This was Jeremy Denk’s Bay Area solo debut program. It promised to be an auspicious one, and I couldn’t wait to see if he would pull it off.

As every classical music lover knows by now, this is a big anniversary year for Chopin and Schumann. Still, somehow we are never quite prepared to fully comprehend their vast achievements as composers for the piano. Emanuel Ax’s recital at Davies Symphony Hall Sunday showed how difficult it is to reconcile these two giants of the Romantic period.