In classical music, programming a concert is akin to the task of the DJ—selecting and sequencing the right combination of listener-luring hits and unexpected gems. For their final performance of the season, conductor Christophe Chagnard and the Lake Union Civic Orchestra have chosen a sumptuous slate of sea-oriented pieces, coupling two sure-fire winners with a pair of lesser-known works.

Orchestras rarely play Felix Mendelssohn's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, op. 27, instead sticking with standard fare like the Hebrides Overture. Mendelssohn (1809–1847) wrote a string of sea-related overtures; Calm Sea, inspired by two Goethe poems, sparkles with the elegant ease and pellucid scoring (string pizzicati, lean yet exultant brass, etc.) of his best music. The concert's other obscurity, "Une Barque sur l'océan," by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) doesn't rank with his greatest orchestral pieces—Rapsodie Espagnol, Daphnis et Chloé, and Boléro—however the vessel that is "Une Barque" floats atop an undulating surface of strings and flutes long enough to lull the ears into a reverie.

The "hits" of the concert focus not on sailing but the tempestuous power of the sea itself. British composer Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) culled the Four Sea Interludes from his 1945 breakthrough opera Peter Grimes. Each interlude is terrific, from the radiant, swelling horns of "Dawn" to the concluding "Storm," which restores real menace to the Hollywood movie music cliché of thundering tympani. Claude Debussy (1862–1918) aptly subtitled La Mer "Three Symphonic Sketches." Rushing and surging with Beethovenian might, the orchestral ocean that is La Mer roils and collides, resting in a refractory calm until the next tidal wave of cascading strings, annunciatory horns, and frothing cymbal crashes.

Catch the Lake Union Civic Orchestra Fri June 23 (Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255), 7:30 pm, $8/$14.