The Lake Placid Sinfonietta under the direction of Ron Spigelman played a superb concert at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts featuring the music of Saint Saens, Massenet, Grieg and Beethoven.

Under the theme “Heroes and Heroines,” Mr. Spigelman, with his usual triple espresso energy level, guided the ensemble through a high energy program in which every member must have burned through 37,000 calories.

I spotted one of them after the concert looking visibly exhausted as she trudged through the parking lot toward her car explaining that it had been an especially grueling week of concerts and traveling around the north country.

While that may be true, they didn’t perform as if they were tired at all. The Saint Saens “Bacchanale” from the opera “Samson and Delilah” got the concert off to a rousing start with Matthew Lengas playing the opening oboe statement that brought visions of a beautiful exotic dancer plying her trade. The orchestra joined in about a half minute later, and it was off to the races for the rest of the night.

Massenet’s “Herodiade Dances” followed and kept the overall pace of the concert rolling along nicely as it led to the first half finale with five movements from Grieg’s “Peer Gynt,” which were in order, “Morning,” “Ase’s Death,” “Anitra’s Dance,” “Arabian Dance,” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” Although no section of the orchestra appeared to be lacking in any regard during any portion of the concert, the strength and lushness of the string section was on full display during “Morning” especially.

The concert’s second half featured Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica” or heroic symphony, that Beethoven originally dedicated to Napoleon. Mr. Spigelman explained that Beethoven abruptly and angrily changed the dedication away from Napoleon to the ordinary citizens of the day instead after Napoleon declared himself France’s supreme ruler and therefore just another tyrant.

Beethoven’s dislike for him intensified when his army occupied Vienna in 1805 and then again in 1809.

Mr. Spigelman also explained that, in his opinion, the “Eroica” symphony composed in 1803 spearheaded music’s Romantic era, which lasted roughly until the 20th century. Then, prior to beginning the piece, he took a page from Leonard Bernstein’s “Young People’s Concerts” play book from the 1950s and 60s and had the orchestra play the exact portion of the symphony that he feels serves as the most vivid departure from Classical era tradition which thus set the tone for about the next 100 years.

Some conductors adhere to the unwritten rule of “Never try to educate your audience.” But Mr. Spigelman demonstrates no reservations about making a serious effort to enlighten his audiences about every piece the Sinfonietta performs. He does so in considerable detail without reading from a script.

If I were sitting on the stage with an instrument in my lap itching to get started I might prefer to just skip the monologues, get on with the concert and get home, but as a member of the audience I find these brief history lessons very informative, entertaining and well explained.

In the event that anybody may have had reservations about whether such a small orchestra was up to the task of performing such a mammoth work, the prompt and enthusiastic standing ovation it received gave every indication that it certainly was. I was one of the many standing and applauding. These are, after all, very professional players from all over the world, and what they lack in numbers they more than make up for in spirit and intensity.

As if Beethoven’s Third Symphony wasn’t daring enough, next week they plan to take on the second movement to Mahler’s Second Symphony along with works by Schubert, Bruckner, Korngold and Wagner. (Could Mahler’s “Symphony Of A Thousand” be on the horizon as well?)

Don’t miss it.