CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER, Performance Hall, Utah State University, Nov. 3

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is one of the elite organizations in the country. Its members come from the top tier of chamber musicians, and each year the society invites promising newcomers to join its ranks.

Members of the society frequently tour the United States, and Thursday six of them came to Logan for a concert in Utah State University’s acoustically wonderful Performance Hall.

Of the six who played the concert, sponsored by the Chamber Music Society of Logan, three are long term members and among the best chamber musicians in the world: violinist Arnold Steinhardt (whom most concertgoers in Utah know as the founder and first violinist of the now disbanded Guarneri Quartet); violist Paul Neubauer; and cellist Fred Sherry. They were joined by a trio of much younger players: violinist Jessica Lee; violist Beth Guterman; and pianist Inon Barnatan. Lee and Guterman, both probably in their late 20s or early 30s, were outstanding musical partners for the veteran players. Barnatan, on the other hand, was a disappointment.

Lee and Guterman put their remarkable technical mastery and their keen musicality on display, and at the same time showed they were musical equals to Steinhardt, Neubauer and Sherry. Barnatan, however, didn’t measure up to the others. He was quite frankly out his league. He wasn’t even on the same planet as the others.

Barnatan joined the string players (minus Neubauer) in Johannes Brahms’ dark and powerful Piano Quintet in F minor, op. 34. While the strings played with nuanced and subtle inflections and expressions, Barnatan’s playing was rough and unmusical. It became quickly obvious that he has yet to learn the intricacies of ensemble playing. He needs to go back to school and be coached in chamber music. His playing brought the entire performance down several notches.

The rest of the concert was fortunately on a higher level.

The program opened with Steinhardt, Neubauer and Sherry playing Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Trio in D major, op. 9, no. 2. The performance wasn’t flawless, though; Steinhardt struggled with playing in tune and was frequently flat, which caused the others to play flat as well. But the account didn’t lack anything in interpretation. And they certainly brought out the charm and lyricism of the music.

Brahms’ String Quintet in F major, op. 88, followed the Beethoven. This was a superbly played account that captured the expressiveness and richly textured lyricism that flows throughout the work. And Lee and Guterman fit right in with the older musicians. The ensemble playing the five put on display was of the highest order. It was intuitive and showed that when a group of like minded individuals come together to create music, magic can and does happen. This was without question the highlight of the evening.