Previews

Concerto Köln belongs to that rare breed of early-music bands that can make a beloved favorite sound remarkably fresh. Handel fans, for instance, may know them as the orchestra for Harmonia Mundi’s 1991 recording of Giulio Cesare with Jennifer Larmore and Barbara Schlick, still the pacesetter on that front.

Music at Kohl is now in its 27th season of presenting music and musical education in the South Bay. The current year’s program includes performances by such well-known ensembles as the Borealis String Quartet, the Ives Quartet, and the Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players.

Forty-nine minutes into our chat about the San Francisco Symphony Chorus’ Spring Concert, Music Director Ragnar Bohlin addresses what makes him tick.

Compared to Madama Butterfly and La Bohème, Puccini’s La rondine (The swallow), which premiered in 1917, is certainly a less-performed work, though it can hardly be called obscure.

If you enjoy being dazzled by virtuoso musical fireworks, then the upcoming program by the American Bach Soloists is surely designed with you in mind.

Decades after its ascension to the glittery throne of Glam Rock, the band Queen continues to resonate loudly in pop culture. You could hear Queen’s imperative Don’t Stop Me Now resonating from the loudspeakers at AT&T Park last week as hoi polloi sought their seats for a preseason skirmish between the San Francisco Giants and the visiting Oakland A’s.

There are a lot of reasons to attend the next performance of the Gold Coast Chamber Players. They’re playing in their new performance space, which violist Pamela Freund-Striplen calls “just wonderful.” They’re featuring a rising classical music star, soprano Leah Crocetto.

Musicians and dancers will come together in a new and engaging way in the spring season of the Alonzo King LINES Ballet, which runs April 16-25 at the Novellus Theater at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The season features the premiere of a work that partners the ballet ensemble with several San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows.