Season opens with music for piano and strings

Any chamber concert that features Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G Minor is guaranteed to be a joyous occasion, at least in part. The piece was composed in 1940, during the depths of World War II; yet it’s one of the composer’s most blithe and open-hearted works, full of beautiful melody and deftly worked-out counterpoint that is evidence of his devotion to the music of Bach.

The quintet forms the centerpiece of San Francisco Performances’ season-opening program, featuring a collaboration between pianist Garrick Ohlsson and the Apollon Musagète Quartet. Ohlsson, a longtime San Francisco resident whose career encompasses both standard repertoire and contemporary works, will perform excerpts from Bach’s “Art of Fugue.”

The Polish quartet promises a rendition of Dvorák’s Quartet in E-Flat, Op. 51.

Garrick Ohlsson and Apollon Musagète Quartet: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7. $50-$75. Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., S.F. 415-392-2545. www.sfperfor mances.org

Dario Acosta