BRANDENBURG

British Baroque specialist Nicholas McGegan conducts the First of Bach's Brandenburg concerti in March at the New World, following February performances of the Second by Seraphic Fire's Firebird Orchestra. Firebird also surveys perhaps the most popular classical work of all time, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, in three concerts Jan. 15-17. Seraphic will return to its roots as an early-music group for performances Oct. 1-4 of the supreme Missae Papae Marcelli of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

The choir closes its regular season May 13-16 with another major effort, the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, joined by the Western Michigan University Chorale to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of this Renaissance masterwork.

Operatically, the focus is on good box office. Florida Grand Opera's productions include a double bill of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Puccini's Suor Angelica, opening Nov. 14 with soprano Kelly Kaduce in the title role; in Pagliacci tenor Jay Hunter Morris is Canio to her Nedda. Soprano Eglise Gutierrez returns to FGO beginning Jan. 23 for Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Rossini's perpetually popular Barber of Seville bows Feb. 20 with Roderick Williams and Sarah Coburn, and the season winds down starting April 24 with Bizet's Carmen, featuring Kendall Gladen, Adam Diegel, and Miami's Elaine Alvarez.

Finally, Julian Kreeger's Friends of Chamber Music series at the University of Miami's Gusman Hall includes the Talich and Artemis quartets, the Paris Piano Trio and the eminent Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Add the classical portions of UM's Festival Miami running most of October, the national Chopin Piano Competition (Feb. 20-28), the Miami Bach Society concerts (beginning Sept. 20 with duo-harpsichordists Nives and Laura Dearmas), and Iris van Eck's Chameleon Chamber Music series in Fort Lauderdale (starting Oct. 18), and you have the promise of plenty of musical nourishment.