Haydn wrote the template; Mozart refined its emotional register; Beethoven inherited both and promptly signed his own name across them. Close Encounters With Music’s Vivace Orchestra makes that succession the explicit subject of its May 16 program at Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, with conductor Joshua Gersen leading 26 soloists and chamber musicians through works the organization describes, without much overstatement, as “Western music at its apex.”
About the Show
The program sequences the argument deliberately. Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony — which CEWM calls his “most beloved and most popular” work and the piece that established the symphonic model — opens the concert. Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante follows, notable for a viola part the composer wrote for himself to play, giving the solo writing an insider’s specificity that works conceived from the outside rarely carry. Beethoven’s First Symphony closes the evening. CEWM characterizes it as possessing “iron-fisted control of structure, with wit, humor and irresistible charisma,” which is apt for a young composer still working within the inherited form but already restless inside it. CEWM notes the program constitutes “large-scale repertoire never before performed in South County.”
The Vivace Orchestra brings together 26 soloists and chamber musicians for this program, a larger formation than the 14-piece Vivace Chamber Orchestra CEWM has deployed in prior seasons. Players are drawn from ensembles including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, Eighth Blackbird, and Sybarite5. Gersen recently completed his tenure as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic; on a subscription-concert debut there, The New York Times called him “Impassioned and incisive.” He studied conducting at Curtis Institute of Music and composition at New England Conservatory, and is a Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award recipient.
The concert is the sixth of seven events in Close Encounters With Music’s 2026–2027 season. Founding artistic director Yehuda Hanani, a cellist who has performed with major orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic, has built CEWM’s format over three decades around a specific premise: thematic chamber concerts with commentary that contextualizes composers and their periods. Critics have called him “the supreme master builder of thematic programming.”
Venue & Logistics
The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, at 14 Castle Street in Great Barrington, is a 681-seat theater in the southern Berkshires, drawing audiences from the region and from the broader Hudson Valley classical circuit. A hall this size suits this program: symphonic Viennese classicism in an intimate room carries a different weight than in a large concert hall, and CEWM’s chamber-inflected approach fits the space. The concert begins at 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 16, and runs until approximately 6 p.m.
Tickets
Early bird subscriptions are available through September 7, 2026, with regular-season single tickets going on sale September 28. No individual ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets