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Claudio Monteverdi, already famous as a composer of secular music in the late 16th century, published a Mass and a vesper service in 1610. On Sunday afternoon, in Grace Cathedral, Magnificat celebrated the 400th anniversary of that event.

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

Are opera lovers reevaluating La Rondine? Puccini’s 1917 lyric comedy has always been dismissed as something of a trifle, a one-hit wonder with a single great soprano aria.

Ranging from Bach to Copland to Webern, pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s April 24 recital at Herbst Theatre looked at first glance like a model of eclecticism. In fact, it was a tightly and cannily structured program, with variations as the organizing principle.

Eric Kujawsky, music director of the Redwood Symphony, likes sometimes to lead his volunteer musicians into the thorny thickets of Eastern European modernism. This time, on Saturday at the Cañada College Theatre in Redwood City, nobody got seriously lost.

On paper, last week’s San Francisco Symphony programs looked like meat and potatoes repertory, but Friday evening’s performance in Davies Symphony Hall turned out to be more like servings of Salzburger Nockerl with a well-made Kir Royale to wash it down.

When a choral group with “Bach” in its name meets the St. John's Passion, you expect all the stops to be pulled, and California Bach Society is doing just that.

It’s story time at the Marin Center in San Rafael when the Marin Symphony plays its upcoming Family Concert the afternoon of May 8. “Once Upon a Symphony,” conducted by George Thomson, explores musical works that are based on old and new childhood tales, from Mother Goose to Harry Potter.