Joy, precision from Eroica, Prague orchestra

As one of three entries in the Seattle Symphony's visiting orchestras series, Tuesday night's program featured both the understated and the flamboyant. The Prague Chamber Orchestra, the famously conductorless ensemble, held the stage for the entire concert, with a brief but spectacular appearance by the Eroica Trio, those fabulous femmes whose heavy marketing is backed up by brilliant musicianship.

In an all-Beethoven first half, the orchestra began with the "Coriolan" Overture. This is early Beethoven, so it is appropriate that the group showed classical-period restraint, avoiding Romantic excesses.

Some pieces of music seem like they were meant to be played by certain ensembles, and Beethoven's Triple Concerto was meant for the Prague Chamber Orchestra and the Eroica Trio.

The Eroica musicians form one of the most exciting groups on the classical stage. It was a joy to watch cellist Sara Sant'Ambrogio begin the theme of the spirited Allegro movement, then pass it seamlessly to violinist Adela Peña and have it picked up by pianist Erika Nickrenz. The eye contact between Sant'Ambrogio and Peña seemed to contain every technical detail of the music they passed between them, while reveling in the unabashed joy of it. By necessity, pianist Nickrenz faces away from the other two, but they are so well-connected through their ears, it hardly matters.

These women grew up together, and they are a good argument for all chamber music ensembles to be raised together. It is rare to see and hear musical intuition so tight.

Once was not enough of the Eroicas: The audience demanded an encore, so they offered a very satisfying, melancholy tango by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla.

The second half of the program was appropriately Slavic, beginning Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, expanded from his eighth string quartet. When three of the five movements are marked Largo, you know it won't involve skipping through meadows. This is one of the most emotionally intense pieces Shostakovich wrote, and the orchestra's string section played it vividly and with great motion.

The final offering of this Czech group was, appropriately, the "Czech Suite" by Antonin Dvorak. The charm of these folk-tune settings not only cheered everyone's spirits but let the orchestra cut loose joyfully for the first time. The group sounded three times its actual size when it rang out the finale, which caused such a roaring standing ovation, it obliged with three encores.