Singing 'Sgt. Pepper'
Fifty years ago this week, the Beatles released "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," still considered one of the best albums ever. Twin Cities vocal group Cantus pays tribute with a close-harmony take for its annual "Covers" concert. Music by Feist, Gotye and Dolly Parton also is featured. (7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. and June 8-10; Cowles Center, Mpls.; $10-$35, 612-435-0055, cantussings.org)
Forgotten Rossini
More than three decades after his early retirement, Italian composer Gioachino Rossini produced one final full-scale composition, the "Petite Messe Solennelle (Little Solemn Mass)." Quirkily scored for keyboard instruments and a small choir, it is one of the more touching religious works in the repertoire. MacPhail Center's Sonomento ensemble provides a rare opportunity to hear what Rossini jestingly termed "this little composition which is, alas, the final sin of my old age." (7:30 p.m. Fri., Hamline Methodist Church, St. Paul; 7:30 p.m. Sat., MacPhail Center, Mpls.; $15, 612-321-0100, macphail.org)
From Debussy to Dvorak
The Mill City String Quartet pairs Debussy's exquisitely wrought String Quartet, the only one he wrote, with Beethoven's terser "Serioso" Quartet (No. 11). Dvorak's wistfully tuneful "Miniatures" for two violins and viola rounds out a recital of wide-ranging emotional content. (3 p.m. Sat., the Baroque Room, St. Paul; 3 p.m. Sun., St. David's Episcopal Church, Minnetonka; free, millcityquartet.com)
Jazz meets classical
Jazz pianist Kenny Werner joins the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota for the world premiere of his works for string quartet and jazz piano trio. With seven instrumentalists onstage, the concert also includes a clutch of jazz standards and Gershwin's "Lullaby" for string quartet. (4 p.m. Sun., Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University, St. Paul; $20-$25, 651-450-0527, chambermusicmn.org)
Sommerfest director's Romantic return
After 15 years, former Sommerfest artistic director David Zinman returns to the Minnesota Orchestra this week to conduct a powerful program featuring Richard Strauss' Nietzschean tone poem "Also Sprach Zarathustra." Wagner's "Tannhäuser" Overture and Bloch's "Schelomo" (with soloist Anthony Ross, the orchestra's principal cellist) round out a program that's sure to please the Romantic orchestral palate. (8 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; Orchestra Hall, Mpls.; $29-$79, 612-371-5656, minnesotaorchestra.org)
TERRY BLAIN
