On any given Saturday in night in New York, there are a surfeit of musical options to choose from: everything from arena-size rock and pop concerts, to clubs playing the latest house and techno, to jazz and indie rock shows at clubs throughout downtown and Brooklyn. Of course, there are plenty of classical events to partake of as well, though it's often difficult to see past the bright lights of Carnegie and Lincoln Center.

But, if you know where to look, there are some truly worthwhile classical music events happening under the radar in this town. There are institutions such as the People's Symphony, which has been presenting chamber music in a high school auditorium near Union Square for over 100 years. And there are others like the One World Symphony, which has been presenting ever-more-ambitious concerts in churches in Brooklyn Heights and Manhattan over the past decade. (They close their season this weekend with two performances of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.)

But, I had never heard of Ensemble du Monde until their founder and artisic director, Marlon Daniel, sent me a press release for their latest concert at Merkin Concert Hall, where they've appeared about once a month this season. The chamber-sized orchestra (founded in 2000) seems to be a pure extension of Mr. Daniel's will, having corralled an impressive collection of Curtis, Mannes, Eastman and Juilliard grads, along with expats from the Moscow, Paris and Beijing Conservatories, among others. In all, his musicians hail from 13 different countries, thus the orchestra's name. 

Saturday's program was impressive for its novelty as well as for its ambition. Josef Suk's Serenade in E-Flat Major was long and luxuriously romantic. Concertmaster Yuriy Bekker proved to be a brilliant soloist in Astor Piazzola's  Estacios Portenas: an ingenious, tango-tinged riff on Vivaldi's Four Seasons. And, the Estonian composer Eino Tamberg's neo-romantic Concerto Grosso No. 5 seemed to have a foot on either side of the Iron Curtain: like a cross between Shostakovich and Sibelius, with a bit of Ravel thrown in for excitement. (Tamberg was scheduled to attend the concert, but passed away in 2010.) 

Unfortunately, it seemed as if the well-below-capacity audience was made up mostly of family and friends, no doubt attributable to the absence of any true marketing or advertising. I mean, I know there's a lot to do on a Saturday night in New York, but someone really needs to get the word out about these guys. Really.

More pics on Flickr.