April is an unusually excellent month for Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts—a promising match up of programs and conductors. This month I am simply listing concerts I expect will be great.

By Susan Miron.

Soprano Lisa Saffer performs in an evening of Sephardic Music for Voices and Piano

Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Performed by the Handel and Haydn Society. Conducted by Harry Christopher. At Symphony Hall, Boston, MA, April 1, 3 p.m.

Wednesday Concert Series. At the Church of St. John Evangelist, 35 Bowdoin Street, Boston, MA, every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m, free.

April 7: The Concordia Consort will present “Tears of a Sorrowful Soul,” featuring Renaissance and Baroque chorales and psalms.

April 11: Karen Burciaga (violin and guitar), Elizabeth Hardy (dulcian), Rebecca Shaw (cello), and Alaistair Thompson (harpsichord) will present “Riches of Italy,” featuring works by Castello, Falconieri, Fontana, et al.

April 18: Anna Shelest (piano) will perform works by Liszt, Wagner-Liszt, and Schumann.

April 25: Yelena Beriyeva (piano) will perform works by Chopin, Schemmer, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky.

Brahms’s A German Requiem. Performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. At Symphony Hall, Boston, MA., April 5 at 8 p.m., April 6 at 1:30 p.m., and April 7 at 8 p.m. Christoph von Dohnányi conducts the orchestra; John Oliver conducts the chorus.

Paco de Lucía. Presented by World Music/CRASHArts. At the Boston Opera House, Boston, MA, April 11, 7:30 p.m.

A musician many critics consider to be one of the finest guitarists in the world, a master of the flamenco genre.

Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, Salonen’s Violin Concerto, and Stravinsky’s The Firebird (complete). Performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At Symphony Hall, Boston, MA, April 12 at 8 p.m., April 13 at 7 p.m., and April 14 at 8 p.m. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts; Leila Josefowicz is featured on violin.

Beethoven Quartets. Performed by the Borromeo Quartet. At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Calderwood Hall, Boston, MA, April 15, 1:30 p.m.

Sephardic Voices for Voice and Piano: Jewish music for soprano and tenor from Turkey, Spain and Italy. Performed by Marti Epstein (piano), Lisa Saffer (Soprano), and Cantor Gastón Bogomoli (tenor) at the Boston Conservatory, Boston, MA, April 15, 8 p.m.

Music for Food: Duos by Bartók, Brahms’s B Flat Major Sextet. At New England Conservatory’s Brown Hall, Boston, MA, April 16, 8 p.m.

The last of four great concerts to benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank. Kindly bring a check or cash for the Food Bank or some canned goods.

Solo cello recital: Music in the Afternoon: Works for Solo Cello by Zoltán and Ralf Yusuf Gawlick. Performed by cellist Rafael Popper Kaiser at Boston College, Gasson Hall 100, Boston, MA, April 17, 4 p.m.

A chance to hear a solo performance by a musician who appears with nearly every chamber music ensemble in Boston.

Critics consider Paco de Lucía to be one of the greatest guitarists alive.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, Mendelssohn’s Incidental Music to A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. Performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with the Women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. At Symphony Hall, Boston, MA, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. (Open Rehearsal), April 19 at 8 p.m., April 20 at 1:30 p.m., and April 21 at 8 p.m.

Debussy’s Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun, Mozart’s Piano Concerto #22 in E Flat Major, and Beethoven’s Symphony # 6 (Pastoral). Performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At Symphony Hall, Boston, MA, April 26 at 10:30 a.m. (Open rehearsal), April 27 at 8 p.m.,  April 28 at 1:30 p.m., and April 2 at 8 p.m.

Works of Haydn, Ades, and Dvovak. Performed by the Emerson String Quartet. Presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston. At Symphony Hall, Boston, MA, April 27, 8 p.m.

Musicians from Marlboro: Mozart’s String Quintet in E Flat Major, Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E Flat Major, and Bartók’s String Quartet #6. Part of the Gardner Museum’s Sunday Concert Series, at the Gardner Museum, Calderwood Hall, Boston, MA, April 29, 1:30 p.m.