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Robert McDuffie is the quintessential American violinist, despite having performed with most major European and American orchestras and founding the Rome Chamber Music Festival. His love affair with American repertoire began with Samuel Barber and is currently manifest in a new piece, commissioned from Philip Glass, which he will perform on Nov. 2 at Herbst Theatre. McDuffie spoke to SFCV, in his soft, southern accent, about his life and work.

Symphony Silicon Valley’s showcase of Hungary came in an exploration in the obscure but worthy corners of the repertoire and a young and dazzling solo performer. Three works by modern Hungarian composers of the same generation, plus three by foreigners evoking the country, were saved from being too much of the same thing by liveliness and a riot of orchestral color.

Benjamin Bagby may be uniquely qualified to perform Beowulf. He’s been making a progress back to the medieval epic’s source since the start of his career. The American-born, Paris-based early-music specialist arrives in the Bay Area this week to perform his acclaimed “reconstruction” of the Anglo-Saxon poem.

If no weapons are involved, next time I am facing a gang in a dark alley, I want Gabriel Manro on my side. Making his debut here, in the West Bay Opera’s sensational production of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, Manro is a new kind of baritone: not lyric, not helden, not Kavalier, not Bariton-Martin — none of those. Rather, he’s a knock-down baritone.

The Kronos Quartet have taken program-planning to a new level, stitching together works by 12 different composers, played without pause and with carefully planned segues. In doing so, the group essentially created a new 90-minute masterpiece: Awakening, a “musical meditation on the anniversary of 9/11.” The program was first played on Sept. 11, 2006 and was repeated on Wednesday, as the opening concert of Stanford Lively Arts' season.

Can Madama Butterfly fail? “Impossible,” say some 195 performances by the San Francisco Opera alone. Only La bohème is more often performed, and that by a whisker. Both present us with a transient happiness whose precious fragility can never survive the pathos — the inescapable sadness — that is the destiny of human life.

Sure, most people at Davies Symphony Hall for the San Francisco Symphony concerts beginning Oct. 21, will be there for superstar violinist Joshua Bell. But the orchestra will also play a trio crowdpleasers under the baton of James Conlon. 

When George Frederick Handel gets the chorus revved up, a concert can get pretty exciting. San Francisco Bach Choir is hopping the Handel train in its upcoming concerts. Expect the rafters to ring.

In a performance hosted by Ben Simon and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, as part of their afternoon “You Gotta Hear This” series you'll have the chance to hear Rootstock and Sqwonk on Oct. 18.