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The Angeles String Quartet -- currently recording the complete Haydn quartets plus a compact disk of chamber music by composers best known for their film work -- plays one piece from each project on the 3 o'clock program: Haydn's Opus 54 No. 1, and the Third Quartet of Erich Korngold along with Schubert's \"Death and the Maiden.\" For a listing of future concerts, call 431-8075. The first half of the evening offers classical, folk and contemporary music performed by the Chinese Music Consort of New York, an ensemble including the soprano Hong-Yu Chen and four masters of traditional instruments, recently arrived from China; after intermission, Qi Shu Fang's Peking Opera Company, which actually is based in Shanghai, offers \"At Crossroads\" and \"The Stealing of Heavenly Grass.\" The Morris Group is also giving an 8 P.M. Friday recital at the Quick Center at Fairfield University where future entertainments include the Paul Taylor Dance Company, a jazz ensemble headed by Wynton Marsalis and Menotti's \"Amahl and the Night Visitors.\" For a copy of the Quick Center's calendar, call the box office at 254-4010.

The Angeles String Quartet -- currently recording the complete Haydn quartets plus a compact disk of chamber music by composers best known for their film work -- plays one piece from each project on the 3 o'clock program: Haydn's Opus 54 No. 1, and the Third Quartet of Erich Korngold along with Schubert's \"Death and the Maiden.\" For a listing of future concerts, call 431-8075. The first half of the evening offers classical, folk and contemporary music performed by the Chinese Music Consort of New York, an ensemble including the soprano Hong-Yu Chen and four masters of traditional instruments, recently arrived from China; after intermission, Qi Shu Fang's Peking Opera Company, which actually is based in Shanghai, offers \"At Crossroads\" and \"The Stealing of Heavenly Grass.\" The Morris Group is also giving an 8 P.M. Friday recital at the Quick Center at Fairfield University where future entertainments include the Paul Taylor Dance Company, a jazz ensemble headed by Wynton Marsalis and Menotti's \"Amahl and the Night Visitors.\" For a copy of the Quick Center's calendar, call the box office at 254-4010.

In addition to Mr. Berman, the roster of faculty and guest artists for the two concerts consists of the violinists Gyorgy Pauk and Peter Salaff, the cellists Ralph Kirshbaum and Ole Akahoshi, the violist Atar Arad and the clarinetist David Krakauer. Friday's 8 P.M. program lists the F major Cello Sonata, the Clarinet Trio and the G minor Piano Quartet; on Saturday, the F minor Viola and D minor Violin Sonatas preface the A major Piano Quartet. Brahms is on the Music Mountain menu this week too -- the String Sextet next Sunday -- but otherwise the programming is far more varied. Today, for example, the Cavani String Quartet begins its 3 o'clock recital with Haydn, continues with Shostakovich -- the Quartet No. 14, a considerably more cheerful work than most others dating from the composer's final years -- and concludes with Ernest Bloch's Quintet No. 1, the last with Peter Takacs as guest pianist. On the first occasion, look for Beethoven's F minor Quartet (Op. 95), and another Shostakovich, the early F major, No. 3, plus Mozart's K. 581 Quintet, with Ethan Sloane as guest clarinetist. At the Sunday session, the Leontovitch shares the stage with the Orlando String Quartet, each ensemble going it alone -- the Orlando with Mozart, the Leontovitch with Tchaikovsky -- after which the players are mixed and matched for the promised Brahms String Sextet in G.

Connecticut Ballet is bringing a small festival of dance to Stamford next weekend with three premieres and a debut, the latter marking the first Connecticut appearances of Irina Dvorovenko, the 21-year-old ballerina who won the gold medal at the 1992 Moscow International Competition and the Grand Prix of the 1994 Serge Lifar Competition in Ukraine. The program lists performances of Marius Petipa's Spanish-style ballet \"Paquita\" and \"Threads from a String of Swing,\" the latter choreographed by Daryl Gray to the big band sounds of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, plus the world premiere of \"Eros,\" the latest dance creation of the group's artistic director, Brett Raphael, incorporating music of Pergolesi, Mahler and Samuel Barber. Inspired by the increasing popularity of the \"Broadway at the Garde\" series, the arts center in New London has planned two more productions to the 1995-96 season, for a total of seven musicals. Subscribers are likely to see \"Crazy for You,\" \"Shenandoah,\" \"Annie,\" \"Will Rogers Follies,\" \"42d Street\" and \"Gigi.\"

Another spring chorale follows at 5 in New Haven, as Mark Brombaugh leads the 30-voice United Church Choir in \"A Garland of Song,\" including songs by Haydn, movements from Rossini's \"Petite Messe Solennelle,\" \"Mendelssohn's \"Hear My Prayer\" and several spirituals. Vocal ensembles from the Hartt School and Central Connecticut State University help the Hartford Symphony perform Walton's \"Belshazzar's Feast\" on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at The Bushnell. Russell Braun is the baritone soloist, the group's music director Michael Lankester conducts the 8 o'clock programs, including Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3 and Strauss's \"Don Juan\" (246-6807). Two orchestral concerts further complicate the Saturday evening schedule. At 8 o'clock, Jesse Levine leads the Norwalk Symphony at the Concert Hall, the program listing Beethoven's \"Eroica\" Symphony and Saint-Saens Cello Concerto in A Major, the latter with the young Canadian Shauna Rolston as guest soloist (866-2455). At the same time, works by Faure and Stravinsky as well as Manuel Ponce's \"Concerto del Sur\" featuring the guitarist (and Hartt professor) Richard Provost, can be heard as John Eells leads the Farmington Valley Symphony at First Church of Christ Congregational in West Hartford (677-1321).

\"It's a human need,\" said Ruth Laredo, the pianist. \"After all that expenditure of energy, you don't want to go home and feel horrible. You're so vulnerable after a performance, particularly if it wasn't up to your standards. It's like your baby, and you don't want anybody to talk badly about it. You can't say something bad about somebody else's children. A lot of love goes into it, and you want it to be fine, and sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. I always say 'bravo' and 'congratulations.' \" Beverly Sills, the soprano, has special feelings for, \"Oh, what a nice performance.\" \"The last word you want to hear after screaming your lungs out for three hours,\" she said, \"was that it was 'nice.' \" Mr. [Misha Dichter] helped a fan in Tubingen, Germany, who looked askance when he signed her program. \"This doesn't say Claudio Arrau!\" she protested. When he explained that he wasn't -- he had filled in for the ailing pianist at the last minute -- \"She looked crestfallen, handed it back to me and said, 'Bitte' -- please,\" he recalled. \"I signed his name and she just lit up. She was a happy woman.\"

In the Concert Hall, the second event in the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's three-concert series finds the conductorless ensemble playing Faure's Suite \"Masques et Beramasques,\" Elliot Carter's Coplandesque Symphony No. 1 and Vivaldi's \"Four Seasons\" with Gil Shaham as violinist. For tickets to either event, call the Purchase College box office at 251-6200. Mr. Aibel is also marking the occasion by conducting his own \"Anniversary Overture,\" composed in 1989 when he was a 21-year-old student of David Diamond at the Juilliard School. \"Juilliard asked me to write the piece in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the pre-college division,\" Mr. Aibel said, \"because I was the quintessential alumnus, having studied violin, viola, piano and composition for six years in pre-college.\" When Mr. Aibel conducted the premiere of the \"Anniversary Overture\" six years ago, the violin soloist was another budding Juilliard talent, Gil Shaham, who will play Mozart's Third Concerto with the Westchester Symphony at Purchase College on April 29. On next Saturday's Westchester Symphony program are Three Dances from Bernstein's \"On the Town\" and Charles Ives's Second Symphony.

Three local premieres are among the entries: Elizabeth Lauer's \"Diamonds: Double Solitaire for Xylophone and Piano,\" Eugenie Rocherolle's Piano Sonata No. 2, and Constance Walton's \"Momentous Moments\" for voice, flute and piano. Three songs by Lauriston Avery and Joe Utterback, plus another by Winifred Keane, round out the program. Ms. Walton, Ms. Avery and Ms. Keane, from Greenwich, Rowayton and Westport respectively, are among the 18 performers; for more details, call 762-2020. At 8 P.M. on Friday, Stanley Dural -- better known as the master accordionist and four-time Grammy award nominee, Buckwheat Zydeco -- brings his band to the Regina A. Quick Center at Fairfield University, the concert followed by a Mardi Gras-flavored dance party. Zydeco itself refers to the exuberant dance music of southwestern Louisiana's backwater region, but by applying the style to music by Hank Williams, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, among others, Mr. Dural blurs geographical and generational lines. \"I want to take zydeco accordion to another dimension,\" he said, \"to make it available to as wide an audience as possible, to bring everyone together so they can have fun at the same time\" (254-4010). Youth has its musical say this afternoon at a 3 o'clock concert in Frank Scott Bunnell High School featuring all three of the ensembles operating under the banner of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Youth Orchestras: the string orchestra under Alfred Anderson, the concert orchestra led by John Hanulik, and the principal orchestra, directed by Robert Genualdi. Even the guest soloist, Scott St. John, is only 23 years old, and when the young Canadian displays his versatility, playing both Telemann's Viola Concerto and Saint-Saens's Rondo Capriccioso for violin, he'll be fulfilling one of the visions of the program. \"This type of exposure provides the highest quality musical experience for the students,\" Mr. Genualdi said, \"and is an extension of the regional orchestra's commitment to education and development.\" Tickets will be available at the door, or call 375-2686.

Wesleyan is also offering a free Tuesday cycle of musicals at the Cinema: this week at 8, it's Bing Crosby and Marion Davies \"Going Hollywood\", with \"The Merry Widow,\" \"Bandwagon\" and \"Can-Can\" waiting in the weekly wings. The two faculty recitals this week at the Norfolk Festival include one perennial favorite -- Schubert's \"Trout\" Quintet -- but otherwise the programs are refreshingly offbeat. Along with the Schubert, Friday evening at 8:30, are John Harbison's \"Twilight Music\" and Rossini's \"Duetto for Cello and Double Bass,\" the latter featuring Luis Garcia-Renart and James VanDemark; Saturday's 8:30 concert by the New York Woodwind Quintet and Friends, features both a rarity, a Quantz Trio for flute, oboe and continuo, a new piece, Ronald Roseman's Double Quintet for woodwinds and brass, and Faure's C-Minor Quartet for piano and strings transcribed by Samuel Baron for keyboard and winds. The reservations number is 542-5537. A year ago the Goodspeed Opera House's Norma Terris Theater in Chester presented \"Heartbeats,\" a new musical by Amanda McBroom (author of the hit song \"The Rose\"). So successful was what Goodspeed producers called a \"kaleidoscope of song, dance and dialogue that provides a wonderfully funny, perceptive, yet sensitive view of love and marriage,\" that \"Heartbeats\" has been recalled to play a three-month run at Goodspeed itself, starring Karen Mason. For performance times or other information, call the Goodspeed box office at 873-8668.

Wesleyan is also offering a free Tuesday cycle of musicals at the Cinema: this week at 8, it's Bing Crosby and Marion Davies \"Going Hollywood\", with \"The Merry Widow,\" \"Bandwagon\" and \"Can-Can\" waiting in the weekly wings. The two faculty recitals this week at the Norfolk Festival include one perennial favorite -- Schubert's \"Trout\" Quintet -- but otherwise the programs are refreshingly offbeat. Along with the Schubert, Friday evening at 8:30, are John Harbison's \"Twilight Music\" and Rossini's \"Duetto for Cello and Double Bass,\" the latter featuring Luis Garcia-Renart and James VanDemark; Saturday's 8:30 concert by the New York Woodwind Quintet and Friends, features both a rarity, a Quantz Trio for flute, oboe and continuo, a new piece, Ronald Roseman's Double Quintet for woodwinds and brass, and Faure's C-Minor Quartet for piano and strings transcribed by Samuel Baron for keyboard and winds. The reservations number is 542-5537. A year ago the Goodspeed Opera House's Norma Terris Theater in Chester presented \"Heartbeats,\" a new musical by Amanda McBroom (author of the hit song \"The Rose\"). So successful was what Goodspeed producers called a \"kaleidoscope of song, dance and dialogue that provides a wonderfully funny, perceptive, yet sensitive view of love and marriage,\" that \"Heartbeats\" has been recalled to play a three-month run at Goodspeed itself, starring Karen Mason. For performance times or other information, call the Goodspeed box office at 873-8668.