Russian heavyweights

Having shown impeccable musicianship in symphonies by Haydn and Mozart last May, Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena returns to the Minnesota Orchestra this week for more heavyweight Russian repertoire. Shostakovich's colossal, 75-minute Seventh Symphony was premiered in 1942 in Leningrad, while the city was under siege from German forces. It's a prime opportunity for Mena to show his credentials in densely scored music, as the search to replace Minnesota Orchestra music director Osmo Vänskä intensifies. Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto is also featured, with Kirill Gerstein as soloist. (8 p.m. Fri. & Sat., 2 p.m. Sun.; Orchestra Hall, Mpls.; $12-$130.75, 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org)

Trifonov does Bach

In just seven years Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov has gone from precocious competition winner to an artist the Times of London has hailed as "without question the most astounding pianist of our age." Still in his twenties and already a Grammy winner for his album "Transcendental," Trifonov plays a Schubert Club recital this week with Bach as a major point of focus. Arrangements of Bach's music by Johannes Brahms and Myra Hess will be featured, along with selections from Bach's magnum opus "The Art of Fugue." (7:30 p.m. Tue., Ordway Music Theater, St. Paul; $22-$75, 651-292-3268 or schubert.org)

Beyond 'Pinafore'

"Ruddigore" may not be as well known as "H.M.S. Pinafore" or "The Mikado," but is nonetheless a gem of the Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire. Savor its barmy plot of ghosts and witch's curses among the English aristocracy in a new production by the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company. (7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Ends April 5. Howard Conn Fine Arts Center, Mpls.; $16-$26, 651-255-6947 or gsvloc.org)

Baroque women

More and more women composers are having their work resurrected as centuries of male domination in classical music is unraveled. Soprano Carrie Henneman Shaw continues the process in "Heroines of the Baroque," a recital featuring pieces by Jacquet de la Guerre, Francesca Caccini, Barbara Strozzi and Isabella Leonarda. (7:30 p.m. Sat., Baroque Room, St. Paul; $15-$20, thebaroqueroom.com)

Handel's 'Triumph'

Bach and Handel are twin pillars of the baroque period, and both feature in a Bach Society of Minnesota concert with the Minnesota Chorale. Soprano Sarah Brailey is guest soloist in a program combining excerpts from Handel's oratorio "The Triumph of Time and Truth" with Bach's cantata "ICH habe genug." (7:30 p.m. Fri., Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Mpls.; 7:30 p.m. Sat., The Summit Center, St. Paul; $5-$30, bachsocietymn.org)

TERRY BLAIN