Some flash among the clouds at chamber-music festival

Chamber-music festivals are a little like meteorology: Currents in varying temperatures move about in close conjunction, and sometimes you get spectacular lightning strikes. And sometimes all you get is "partly cloudy."

There was a little of both in Monday evening's Summer Festival at Lakeside concert, where the most exciting playing occurred in the work that was probably the least audience-friendly: Janacek's often-acerbic String Quartet No. 1 ("Kreutzer Sonata"). Based on a Tolstoy novella of that title, which in turn refers to Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Violin Sonata, the quartet is overtly programmatic in its musical depiction of love, jealousy and violence.

The Janacek was given a powerful performance by an evenly matched quartet of string players, each of whom made important contributions. The playing of violinists James Ehnes and Joseph Lin, violist Richard O'Neill and cellist Robert deMaine was strongly focused and fully engaged in a commandingly intense, unified performance. This was a quartet that sounded not like a chance encounter of four musicians, but like a permanent ensemble ready to go out on tour.

The familiar Schubert Piano Trio in B-Flat Major that opened the program did not fare quite as well. The three players — violinist Carmit Zori, cellist Bion Tsang and pianist Anna Polonsky — got a lengthy and enthusiastic ovation for the performance, but it was a hit-and-miss affair in which each player had a share of thorny moments. Zori's tone was often skittery and erratic, especially in the quieter passages. Also, intonation among the three performers was sometimes problematic.

The finale, Bridge's Piano Quintet, got an often-electrifying reading from violinists Scott St. John and Amy Schwartz Moretti, violist Cynthia Phelps, cellist Ronald Thomas and pianist Alon Goldstein, who gave the surging, romantic score a performance of passionate and unified energy — complete with a few bolts of musical lightning.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com