Choral

This week, Ragnar Bohlin and the S.F. Symphony Chorus met their ultimate challenge, performing Bach's B minor Mass, a towering landmark of all music. The result is a delightful surprise; an intimate, gentle, lyrical performance of this majestic expression of yearning for peace and the good of all humanity.

Any singer who has performed Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis can attest that this is one piece not for the faint of heart. It therefore takes some gumption to tackle this work, yet this is precisely the challenge adopted by the 100-voice Cantare Chorale, led by David Morales.

It would have been hard to tell, observing the small, graying audience in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco on Saturday, that videos of the early-music band Voices of Music had received, as of this writing, 3,558,070 hits on YouTube. I suspect a good deal of those came from Web queries for the famous Pachelbel Canon, of which VOM has posted an excellent recording.

Kui Dong is a composer who is just now getting the wider notice she deserves. The upcoming Volti concert includes her Painted Lights alongside works by David Lang, Tamar Diesendruck, and Ted Hearne.

Are the American Bach Soloists going to watch the nuptials of Kate and William? The group seems like it's preparing for it this weekend, when they'll perform some of the largest and most sumptuous choral works of the late Baroque in “Music for the Royal Women of Britannia.”

Terrance Kelly and his Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir showcase their infectious spirit at the Oakland East Bay Symphony's holiday celebration, “Let Us Break Bread Together.”

Chora Nova performs one of Rossini’s greatest works, the Petite Messe solennelle — neither little, solemn, nor even really a Mass — on May 29, under the direction of Paul Flight, providing an opportunity to hear this Mass in something close to its original version.

The San Francisco Renaissance Voices present a daunting program of two Masses by Josquin des Prez.