This past weekend’s concerts by the Southern Tier Symphony and its music director, Benjamin Grow, was a welcome return for lovers of classical music.

The concerts — Saturday evening a in the Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University and Sunday afternoon in the Bromeley Family Theater at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford — featured works with a light touch. Not that the selections from Grieg, Mendelssohn and Mozart lack substance or impact: far from it. And each piece evinces that lightness uniquely — a trip through Shakespeare’s fairyland for Mendelssohn; a nostalgic string suite for Grieg; and a nimble symphony sans trumpets and tympani for Mozart.

The Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s “From Holberg’s Time” is a suite of old-style folk dances, although the themes are Grieg’s. It’s meant to evoke the spirit of Norwegian baroque: the age of Ludvig Holberg, the humanist philosopher and teacher. The suite premiered in 1884 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Holberg’s birth.

Like Ravel’s Le Tombeaux de Couperin, the suite pays homage to what was, for Grieg and his contemporaries, the bygone elegance of old musical forms.

In its five brief movements, the Holberg Suite featured only the strings of the Souther Tier Symphony (STS). Their rich resonance was fully in evidence in the intimate setting of the Rigas Family Theater. (What a great place to listen to a symphony orchestra.)

The second violins and violas led off the lovely Sarabande; and principal cellist Brian Donat took the melody in the Air. In the final movement, a Rigaudon, concertmaster Steven Bjella and principal violist David Levine led a rousing country melody.

Mendelssohn’s concert overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream evokes that most popular of Shakespeare’s comedies. The overture dates from 1826, when Mendelssohn was 17, and its popularity hasn’t dimmed a bit since its premiere the following year. Later in his career, Mendelssohn wrote the remaining incidental music to Shakespeare’s play and Grow and the STS performed the Scherzo and Wedding March as well.

The Overture uses broad strokes to highlight the major themes of the play, which Mendelssohnm read in a German translation. Here is the majesty of the court of Theseus and the braying of the transformed Bottom. The Scherzo goes deeper into the play, giving us the forest chase of Shakespeare’s bewitched lovers and the mystery of the puckish Robin Goodfellow, sent before “to sweep the dust behind the door.”

The Wedding March is oh so familiar; but Grow and the STS bring out its joy and the festive pomp of the triple wedding ceremony that ends the comedy. Principal oboist Paul Schlossman, the STS brass and winds, especially flutists Julie Tunstall (principal) and Nicole Murray, shined in a shimmering performance from the entire ensemble.

The program ended with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, the middle child in a trio of symphonies Mozart birthed in the summer of 1788. Unlike its younger and older siblings, 39 and 41, the 40 has no tympani or trumpets and is scored for strings, winds and two horns only. But what the 40 lacks in bombast, it more than makes up for in the sardonic wit of its minor key. It’s an edgy piece that barely lets up from the opening movement with its driving pulse in the strings.

When Grow and his STS musicians did pause for breath, in a lovely wistful second movement Andante, the cellos and violas took the lead.

The third movement Menuetto and Trio have a country charm, but pulse along in the bright passages for violins and the richness of the STS basses. The Finale is a bit of a wild ride that Grow and his ensemble navigated beautifully. And if you hear ideas that Beethoven might build on later, well … so much the better.

This concerts were joyous occasions, coming after two years of no live STS performances.

“We’re getting back into the swing of live performance and are so pleased for both our musicians and our audiences to finally be together again,” STS executive director Laura Peterson said.

And this particular program of audience favorites was a celebration of great music-making and great music listening.