E-Mail This Article to a Friend Then play on . . . and on A slew of Valentine’s Day events BY DAVID WEININGER

Everyone knows that music is the food of love. Even if CDs never replace flowers and chocolate as prime Valentine’s Day gifts, it seems natural that music (especially classical music) should be part of the mix.

On the other hand, composers tend to provide lousy examples of how to run your love life. Brahms was deeply in love with Schumann’s wife, Clara, but could never bring himself to express his feelings, even after Robert’s death in 1856; he lived out his life as a crotchety bachelor. So did Beethoven; his famously impassioned letter to his "Immortal Beloved" never resulted in romantic union, and he eventually pronounced himself unfit for marriage. Wagner cheated on his first wife; Mahler’s wife cheated on him. Haydn and Bizet were both trapped in loveless marriages. Examples abound.

Nevertheless, people still think that classical music on Valentine’s Day is a good idea. If you’re one of them, here are a few suggestions.

Next Friday, February 13, the Boston Classical Orchestra presents "It Takes Two To Tango (or, A Good Wind Blows No Ill)," a program of concertos for husband-and-wife duos drawn from the BSO. Oboist Mark McEwen and his wife, flutist Linda Toote, play Salieri; associate principal bassoon Richard Ranti and his wife, oboist Laura Ahlbeck, take on Vivaldi (himself something of a Casanova); William and Catherine Hudgins, both clarinettists, play Stamitz; and hornists Richard and Jane Sebring offer more Vivaldi. The duos will throw in some American love songs and tangos for good measure. The orchestra also promises to honor any couple who get engaged at the concert. Just try to wait until the slow movement’s over so as not to disturb the listeners around you. That’s at 8 p.m. at Faneuil Hall, in Boston’s Quincy Market, and tickets are $23 to $45; call (617) 423-3883.

The duet is, of course, the natural musical form for romance — at least for mainstream tastes. So the Handel and Haydn Society is offering a program of "Baroque Love Duets" on either side of February 14. Bach’s Cantata No. 49, though, is about the soul’s longing for Christ, a kind of love better suited to Sunday morning than to Valentine’s Day. In Handel’s Apollo and Daphne, a nymph is amorously pursued by a god and is eventually turned into a wreath — which teaches us all something about love, I suppose. H&H will also perform Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto. Performances are February 13 at 8 p.m. and February 15 at 3 p.m. at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, and tickets are $25 to $58; call (617) 266-3605.

Donizetti’s comic Don Pasquale is full of marriage-related high jinks. An old bachelor tries to persuade his nephew to accept an arranged marriage by getting hitched himself. He’s duped into wedding a young woman who proceeds to spend his entire fortune. She, of course, turns out to be his nephew’s true love. Everyone ends up happy in the end. (One wishes things had gone as well for Donizetti himself, whose wife died after seven years of marriage.) Boston University’s Opera Theater presents four performances of Don Pasquale at BU’s Theatre Mainstage, 264 Huntington Avenue in Boston: February 12 at 7:30 p.m., February 13 and 14 at 8 p.m., and February 15 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 to $15; call (617) 266-0800.

Those of you who regard Cupid’s escapades more cynically might be drawn to "(Un)Lucky in Love," a program from the Boston Secession that skips everything good about love and goes straight to the heartache. This talented chorus offers works by Mozart, Brahms, Sondheim, and Peter Schickele in its anti-amorous program. That’s on February 13 at 8 at St. John’s Memorial Chapel, 99 Brattle Street at the Episcopal Divinity School in Harvard Square. Tickets are $25; call (617) 499-4860.

Finally, for those of you who really couldn’t care less about the Hallmark Holiday and just want to hear some intriguing music, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project continues its innovative series of concerts in the Moonshine Room at Club Café, 209 Columbus Avenue in Boston. "Mayhem" presents the sounds of new frontiers being forged in four of the last century’s pivotal composers — Berio, Cage, Rzewski, and Xenakis. That’s on February 10 at 7 p.m., and tickets are $15; call (617) 363-0396. BMOP has devised an interesting marketing plan for the show by concocting a cocktail called "Mayhem" for Betty’s Wok and Noodle Diner on Huntington Avenue. Order one and you’ll get a discount on a ticket to the concert, though both institutions will likely deny any responsibility for whatever happens when you drink it.

Love and drinking, of course, have a distinguished history together, but that’s a subject for another holiday.