If classical music doesn’t speak to you, maybe what you need is the performers speaking to you before they play.
That’s the idea behind the chamber orchestra Parlando, the new enterprise of Ian Niederhoffer, the 25-year-old Yale graduate and emerging conductor who introduced each selection, then led well-played performances of music by Webern, Ted Hearne, and Shostakovich at Merkin Hall Sunday afternoon. The last composer’s Piano Concerto No. 1 got an extra lift from dazzling solos by pianist Maxim Lando and trumpeter David Krauss.