Choosing a season of symphonic music to please audiences and musicians alike is a labor of love for David Amado, conductor and music director for the Treasure Coast’s Atlantic Classical Orchestra.

“I love that part,” Amado says. “There’s so much great music. It’s an embarrassment of riches.”

Amado, along with a savvy ACO advisory committee, looks at the overall themes, listens to what musicians say they would like to play, considers what audiences want to hear, and researches the last date certain pieces were performed.

If it’s a giant work, such as Mahler’s Symphony No.7, chances are it is not something the ACO would include in a season, Amado says. It requires so many musicians that it would not be financially feasible, nor would the orchestra fit onto the stage of some of their venues.

And sometimes it’s a matter of fitting together an important puzzle piece – the availability of required instruments.

“There are no one-size-fits-all approaches,” Amado says. “There are a lot of ways of examining the possibilities. Sometimes it boils down to which is the stronger piece.”

Amado has once again chosen a wide array of music for the ACO’s 2023 Masterworks Series, and it is sure to thrill the audiences in Vero Beach, Stuart and North Palm Beach. The upcoming season features thrilling symphonic compositions in many musical genres, including classical, romantic, modern and contemporary.

Amado chose an all-American-influenced theme for the opening concert of the Masterworks Series in January. It includes highlights from “On the Town,” by famed American composer Leonard Bernstein, and the Violin Concerto by Austrian-born Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1934. A musical prodigy, Korngold moved to Hollywood where he became one of the country’s most influential composers of film scores. The third is the Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” by Antonín Dvořák, said to be inspired by African-American spirituals.

The next concert explores storytelling in music. There is Felix Mendelssohn’s overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” written at the ripe old age of 17; Maurice Ravel’s “Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose),” originally written as a four-hand piano piece and later expanded into an orchestral suite for ballet; and the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Frederik Chopin. While the Chopin piece does not have an overarching narrative, it certainly may evoke a sense of unfolding drama, Amado says.

The third concert lights up Amado’s already electrified energy.

“It’s important to me and my audience to spend some time during the season playing music that our name indicates,” he said, referencing the classical music genre.

That concert brings to the stage classical works by composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Haydn and Haydn’s successor, Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of this concert is that it is being performed by this smaller sized orchestra, sometimes referred to as a chamber orchestra.

The ACO averages about 40 musicians, roughly half the size of larger symphonic orchestras. Amado, who also has been music director for the 75-piece Delaware Symphony Orchestra for the past 20 years, says the intended balance in classical compositions is more easily achieved with a smaller orchestra, in part because you don’t have some sections overpowering others.

“It’s wonderful to perform classical music with an appropriately sized orchestra,” Amado says.

“Many modern orchestras in the 18th century were not pretty big. At their largest, they looked like the ACO, with 40-something people.”

The season’s final Masterworks Series concert brings a large dramatic arc, from an unusually intimate Richard Wagner piece, to a new work for harp by Brazilian composer João Rezende Lopes, and finally to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, arguably the world’s most famous symphony.

“Moving from turmoil to exuberant, brilliant triumph, that’s the dramatic arc which was inspiring to generations of composers” Amado says. “To have this kind of variety over the season is wonderful.”

The ACO also presents a Chamber Series at the Vero Beach Museum of Art and at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Stuart featuring musicians from the Atlantic Classical Orchestra. By design, the musicians themselves select the works they will perform.

THE SEASON:
The Masterwork Series has the full orchestra led by Maestro David Amado. It performs in three venues: The Community Church of Vero Beach, 1901 23rd St., Vero Beach, the Lyric Theatre, 59 SW Flagler Ave., Stuart, and the First Presbyterian Church, 717 Prosperity Farms Road, North Palm Beach. Season tickets range from $90 to $220. Single tickets range from $30 to $65.

Masterworks I
Bernstein’s “On the Town: Three Dance Episodes,” Korngold’s Violin Concerto featuring violinist Leonid Sigal, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World.”
7:30 p.m. Jan. 25 in North Palm Beach; 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26 in Vero Beach; 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Jan. 27 in Stuart.

Masterworks II
Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture,” Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with pianist Drew Petersen, and Ravel’s “Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose).”
7:30 p.m. Feb. 14 in Vero Beach; 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15 in North Palm Beach; and 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Feb. 17 in Stuart.

Masterworks III
Haydn’s Symphony No. 90, Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto with Ansel Norris on trumpet, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 “Linz.”
7:30 p.m. March 15 in North Palm Beach; 7:30 p.m. March 16 in Vero Beach; and 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. March 17 in Stuart.

Masterworks IV
Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll,” Lopes’ Concerto for Harp, “Recife,” with harpist Bridget Kibbey, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
7:30 p.m. April 12 in North Palm Beach; 7:30 p.m. April 13 in Vero Beach; and 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. April 14 in Stuart.

The Chamber Series concerts are held in two venues: the Vero Beach Museum of Art, 3001 Riverside Park Dr., Vero Beach, and St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 621 SE Ocean Blvd., Stuart. Series subscriptions cost $90. Single tickets cost $35.

“Austrian Masterpieces”
With violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano performing Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 39, and Schubert’s Piano Quintet, “Trout.”
4 p.m. Jan. 13 in Stuart; and 3 p.m. Jan. 15 in Vero Beach.

“Three by Three”
With violin, viola and cello performing Boccherini’s String Trio No. 1, and Dohnányi’s “Serenade.”
4 p.m. Feb. 24 in Stuart; and 3 p.m. Feb. 26 in Vero Beach.

“Winds in the Afternoon Air”
With flute, clarinet and bassoon performing Devienne’s Trio in Bb, Koechlin’s Trio, and Kummer’s Trio in F.
4 p.m. March 31 in Stuart; and 3 p.m. April 2 in Vero Beach.

For tickets, call 772-460-0851 or visit AtlanticClassicalOrchestra.com.

Photos provided