Chamber-music fest: a little dessert, double helping of piano

The musicians no longer wear white tux jackets, and the audiences no longer drift out into the lawns for lemonade at intermission.

But inside the concert hall, things are just the same: an exciting lineup of intimate and high-energy performances devised by artistic director Toby Saks, and an audience eager to appreciate them.

In those respects, it's business as usual for the Seattle Chamber Music Society, which launched its 30th- anniversary Summer Festival this week in the Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall. This is the second year at Benaroya (the previous home was the sylvan Lakeside School), and clearly audiences are having no trouble making their way downtown.

The Wednesday concert lineup was an unusual one, to say the least: a relatively unfamiliar work by Anton Arensky (the dark-hued Op. 35 Quartet, which employs two cellos instead of two violins), followed by a piece usually considered the "dessert" of a festival program: one of the big piano quintets, this time the Franck F Minor. You don't usually get dessert before intermission, though few would complain, especially with a performance this good. The players (violinists Andrew Wan and James Ehnes, violist Richard O'Neill, cellist Bion Tsang and pianist Inon Barnatan) pressed forward after a rather rocky start, shaping a reading of considerable energy and finesse.

Then afterward came a two-piano second half, with the husband-and-wife duo of Orion Weiss and Anna Polonsky playing some well- mannered but uninspired Dvorak (Op. 72, Nos. 6 and 8) and some white-hot Ravel (the composer's own reworking of his splashy orchestral piece, "La Valse"). This piece starts out with some "Jaws"-like rumblings, rising to a full-scale orgy for two pianos — glissandos and arpeggios and glittering cascades of chords. The page turns were almost comically fast, as if the pianists were speed- reading their way forward. So many notes, so little time!

Looking ahead: Friday's concert offers more novelties, after an Andrés Díaz cello recital that pairs a Bach Suite and Xi Wang's "Rhapsody." Among the likely high points: the Dvorak Piano Quartet in D Major, with the excellent Augustin Hadelich as the violinist. And next week's three concerts have plenty to offer, starting off Monday with Hadelich and the ultra-talented Stefan Jackiw in Schubert and Mozart.

On July 13, it's Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" Quartet, and July 15 presents one of the most venturesome programs — the world premiere of Laura Kaminsky's "Horizon Lines" (for oboe, bassoon and piano), funded by the Seattle Chamber Music Society's Commissioning Club as a tribute to Toby Saks in her 30th and final season as festival artistic director. Check out the preconcert recital that evening to hear an introduction to the new piece, featuring the composer and the three performers.

Melinda Bargreen also reviews concerts for 98.1 Classical KING FM. She can be reached at mbargreen@aol.com.