A Full Evening of Superb Music-Making Wednesday night at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival

There was much to admire at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival Wednesday night at Lakeside School — from violiist Augustin Hadelich’s recital at the beginning of the evening to a luminous account of Dvorak’s “Dumky” Trio at the end.

Born in Italy to German parents, Hadelich is making his festival debut this summer. He is playing every concert this week and next in a wide range of composers: Schumann and Schubert, then Brahms, Prokofiev and Haydn.  On Wednesday he appeared in recital, playing a brace of fantasies by Telemann, a solo sonata of Ysaye, in G, and a caprice by Paganini, “The Hunt.” His playing was exemplary. At his age — he is 25 this year — and with his credentials, one would expect his technical resources to be large. They are. But he is more than a master of notes. He has finesse, style and a grasp of period sensibilities. His Telemann was nothing like his Ysaye and Paganini.  That could not be said for a lot of his elders. His tone is not large but penetrating, his musicianship carefully constructed but seemingly free on stage. The Telemann had much to recommend it. Hadelich made the most of what the composer gave him. Telemann can seem, on occasion, a little ordinary. That was not the case with Hadelich. He made every phrase count, with each note in its proper place.

It would be hard not to find pleasure in the “Dumky” Trio, so filled with gorgeous sun-lit tunes, Bohemian flavors and ever changing rhythms and character. What made the performance so extraordinary was the intensity and sheer beauty displayed by violinist James Ehnes, cellist Bion Tsang and pianist Andrew Armstrong. They performed as if they were an established trio, so finely wrought was their ensemble. Ehnes and Tsang, who played together in a Brahms piano quartet Monday night, are well-matched in tone and sensibility, with Armstrong weaving the piano around them. The “Dumky” Trio is a mercurial piece that can change its moods quickly and decisively. The three captured that quality with warmth and remarkable deftness. Part of what made the moment — Ehnes, Tsang and Armstrong allied with Dvorak — so memorable was that it was an fervent expression of romanticism at high noon with no apologies but no indulgences either.

The Mendelssohn C Minor Piano Trio and Mihaud’s “Creation of the World” are not quite in the same league as the Dvorak. But they were given evocative and satisfying performances.  Based on his experience in the United States in the 1920s, Milhaud scored his concert suite first for a small orchestra, then a piano quintet. At Wednesday’s performance were Hadelich and Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin; Richard O’Neill, viola; Robert deMaine, cello, and Adam Neiman, piano. They gave vivid life to this little bit of jazz-inflected piece, with hints of Gershwin and Stravinsky. This is not music that burns, the way jazz can, but is something more witty and languid and fun, as Milhaud digests what he heard in New York through his very French compositional lens. This is not the first time the festival has programmed the work: It was done twice in the 1990’s.

Opening the concert was Mendelssohn’s “other” piano trio, in C Minor. It is full of all sorts of ideas, which the composer readily gives forth in a flurry of notes. Again, Jeremy Denk, as the pianist, was given a large assignment, which he dispatched with alacrity and taste. Scott St. John, who made his festival debut in 1992 and has returned intermittently since then, was the violinist. As usual, he played with assurance. Toby Saks, founding artistic director, was the cellist and an asset to the ensemble.

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