The Best Classical Music Concerts in the Bay Area This Fall

If “Morgenstemning” from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite is the eternal soundtrack to spring, then autumn is one long Adagio. Summertime flings fade, leaves dry out and hot nights of excitement transform into something more reflective.

It is, in other words, a perfect season for classical music. Here are 10 exceptional performances coming up in the Bay Area this fall.

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Sept. 14–Oct. 1, 2024
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco

In a post-Roe v. Wade America, Margaret Atwood’s story of women living under forced insemination by a far-right theocracy is more relevant than ever. Now, in addition to a film, a radio series, a stage play, a graphic novel and a hit series on Hulu, The Handmaid’s Tale has been adapted to the opera stage. The haunting, minimalist work by composer Poul Ruders makes its West Coast premiere in San Francisco just a week after San Francisco Opera’s free outdoor event Opera in the Park on Sept. 8.

Other Minds Festival

Sept. 25-28, 2024
Brava Theater, San Francisco

For adventurous listeners in the Bay Area, the annual festival from the organization Other Minds is a gift of new and experimental sounds. This year’s festival has a new home in the Brava Theater, with a flagship premiere by the Washington-based sound artist Trimpin. Titled The Cello Quartet, the 70-minute piece involves robot cellos, floating lamp shades, a mechanical piano and a group of dancers choreographed by Margaret Fisher. The inimitable New York quartet Yarn/Wire also performs, along with local favorites like pianist Sarah Cahill and percussionist Marshall Trammell.

Salonen’s Last Season

Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco

By now, you’ve surely heard the news: this is Esa-Pekka Salonen’s final season as Music Director for the San Francisco Symphony. This September and October offers several chances to witness Salonen at the podium before he leaves: A Nico Muhly world premiere (Sept. 27 and 28), a concert of Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 and Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (Oct. 4–6), and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 paired with Salonen’s own Cello Concerto (Oct. 18–20) are among the highlights.

Olivier Messiaen’s ‘Harawi’

Sept. 27, 2024
Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley

The star soprano Julia Bullock leads this dynamic reinterpretation of Olivier Messiaen’s song cycle. Composed in 1945 with a libretto peppered by surrealism, its performance in Berkeley is augmented by choreography from the dancers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber in order to dramatize its themes of inherent loss. (Messiaen wrote Harawi inspired by the tragedy of Tristan and Isolde.) With Conor Hanick at the piano and directed by Zack Winokur, the production should easily reveal new textures of the music.

Strauss Meets Coltrane

Sept. 28, 2024
Hume Concert Hall, San Francisco

A decade since the genesis of the Black Lives Matter movement, John Coltrane’s short composition “Alabama” continues to resonate. Written as a memorial to four young Black girls who died in a 1963 Baptist church bombing in Birmingham, it’s now received a new arrangement by Carlos Simon, performed here on tenor saxophone by Jason Hainsworth. Preceding it is the soprano Alissa Goretsky singing Richard Strauss’ Vier Lieder, while Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Strauss’ Don Juan round out the program.

‘Jon Nakamatsu and the Jazz Age’

Oct. 5 and 6, 2024
California Theatre, San Jose

I have admittedly taken for granted certain chestnuts of the canon until hearing them performed in the concert hall. Rossini’s William Tell Overture blew my mind at the Royal Albert Hall 15 years ago, and recently, I finally saw a performance of Gershwin’s old standby, Rhapsody in Blue. Would you believe it — it was thrilling! As part of its centennial that’s seen it added to concert programs nationwide, Symphony San Jose gets Jon Nakamatsu at the piano for a program that also includes Ravel and Copland.

Armstrong Arrives at the Oakland Symphony

Oct. 18, 2024
Paramount Theatre, Oakland

When beloved Oakland Symphony music director Michael Morgan died in 2021, he left very large shoes to fill — and Kedrick Armstrong is entirely up to the challenge. Born in South Carolina, the orchestra’s new 30-year-old director makes his debut in an inaugural concert of Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4, paired with African American composer Julia Perry’s 1952 work A Short Piece for Orchestra. Ever community-minded, Armstrong also conducts works by Allison Miller, John Santos and Meklit to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Oakland jazz education nonprofit Living Jazz.

‘Beethoven & Copland’

Oct. 19-21, 2024
Green Music Center, Rohnert Park

On public radio stations like KQED, you’ve heard Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal analyzing the stock market — but did you know you can also see him live, in person, narrating Aaron Copland’s ‘Lincoln Portrait’ with a full symphony orchestra? Friends, dreams do come true. Ryssdal and his famous voice appear with the Santa Rosa Symphony on this program, which also includes Beethoven’s violin concerto and a West Coast premiere of Katherine Balch’s musica pyralis.

Emmanuel Ax: Beethoven, Schumann, Corigliano

Oct. 24 at Green Music Center, Rohnert Park
Oct. 27 at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco

Just about everyone who ever took piano lessons has learned Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata — and the parents of those kids learn just how clunky and inelegant it can sound. Want to hear it in the hands of a professional? The pianist Emmanuel Ax is no stranger to contemporary composers like Krzysztof Penderecki and John Adams, but his gossamer touch is unparalleled when performing Beethoven and Schumann, as he does in this program at both Davies and the Green Music Center.

‘Carmen’

Nov. 13–Dec. 1
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco

There’s a reason Carmen has returned to San Francisco Opera more than 30 times: It’s accessible and action-packed, with songs most people don’t realize they know from movies and cartoons. This interpretation by Francesco Zambello was here in 2019, and it leaned into the story’s indictment of toxic masculinity. With Eve-Maud Hubeaux as Carmen and Jonathan Tetelman as Don José, this is a perfect “bring a friend who’s never been to the opera” opportunity.

Gabriel Kahane and Caroline Shaw

Nov. 14, 2024
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

I’ll never forget the sight of Caroline Shaw, just after President Obama spoke, performing onstage with Kanye West at the Warfield in San Francisco in 2015. These days, the contemporary classical artist has a more restrained musical collaborator in Gabriel Kahane, the son of Santa Rosa Symphony Conductor Emeritus Jeffrey Kahane. Here, they premiere new works inspired by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges’ short story The Library of Babel.