Concert review |

James Ehnes stepped out onto the Nordstrom Recital Hall stage to a jampacked house and a chorus of hoots, applause and shouts of approval.

And he hadn't even played yet.

Ehnes, the personable and prizewinning violinist who has succeeded founder Toby Saks as artistic director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society, already enjoys an approval rating upward of 99 percent. He went on to prove how richly that approval is justified, in a program opening the society's 2012 Winter Festival at an exciting level of artistry. He welcomed the crowd and promised an exciting festival ahead.

That promise was more than fulfilled in the next two hours of focused, assured, and inspiring music making. The evening's starter was the Mozart Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, given a buoyant, well-mannered reading by Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Richard O'Neill (viola), Edward Arron (cello) and William Wolfram (piano). Initially a bit over-pedaled, Wolfram's contribution grew in clarity as the work progressed, and the finale — a spirited Rondo — was positively jolly.

Ehnes has announced that every program in the festival will include a work that has never been performed in previous years. This is quite a task, given the giant and comprehensive list of works already programmed by founding director Saks. But apparently Ehnes has come up with a list of previously missed works of quality, and Thursday night's newcomer was the Shostakovich String Quartet No. 1 in C Major.

Erin Keefe gave the ensemble a strong lead from the first violin chair, with playing that was both nimble and assertive — some of her best work yet. Second violinist Scott Yoo, violist Roberto Díaz (also president and CEO of the prestigious Curtis School of Music), and cellist Robert deMaine joined in a performance that sometimes pushed a little hard (especially in the interior voices), but still conveyed the jaunty, changeable character of the Shostakovich work.

The evening's greatest rewards came in the finale, Schubert's Piano Trio in E-Flat Major (Op. 100). Wonderfully tuneful, but also containing generous helpings of repeated material, this is a work that can seem merely repetitious if it doesn't get an inspired performance. This time it did. Ehnes joined cellist Bion Tsang and pianist Adam Neiman, two longtime festival regulars, in a performance in which almost every phrase was eloquent and remarkable. This was a reading in which each detail had been thought out, right down to every shift in dynamics and every strategic little pause before the resumption of a given melody.

Schubert made relentless demands on the pianist, with repeated chromatic scalar passages up and down the keyboard. Neiman handled them all with panache, bringing down the volume level to splendid effect in some of the quieter melodic passages as the two other players followed suit. Neiman made the piano really sparkle.

This was a performance, in fact, with three great musicians at the top of their game. Tsang has never sounded better, playing with a newer and more expressive freedom. Ehnes' patrician playing, elegantly phrased and beautifully nuanced, set the tone for an incisive, high-energy performance.

"I was only going to go to the opening performance," said one concertgoer as the crowds poured out of the hall.

"But now I want to hear them all."

Melinda Bargreen (mbargreen@aol.com) also reviews concerts for 98.1 Classical KING FM.