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Take a closer listen, and you’ll realize that the Crowden School in Berkeley isn’t the limited classical academy that you might imagine it to be.

New Yorker writer Alex Ross talks about the Golden Age of music and composing to "embrace the millions," whether or not there should be rules surrounding concert hall decorum, writing for music, and his respect for jazz.

For Music Director David Robertson, it’s his rubber-man upper torso and windmill arm gestures. For violin soloist Gil Shaham, it’s a puckish crouch that enables instant flitting between positions within an inch of the conductor, the first-chair violinist, or the front edge of the stage.

Long before the euphoria of their triumphant march through Haydn's string quartet legacy had evaporated, the New Esterházy Quartet were planning new adventures. Now comes the first in a series of concerts centered on works that were inspired by Haydn and — no surprise — the first calling card will be dropped by Amadeus himself.

Bobby McFerrin is one of the few certified, international crowd-pleasers alive today. His effect on San Francisco on Saturday night was no exception; the audience at the Nob Hill Masonic Center had to be warned by McFerrin himself, after almost two uninterrupted hours of singing, that the stagehand union reps would come in and start arresting people if folks didn’t start to leave.