LANCASTER, Ohio -- The annual chamber orchestra concert at St. Mary Church has, during the years, become one of the most anticipated events at the Lancaster Festival.

Thursday night's program -- featuring pianist Christopher O'Riley with the Lancaster Festival Chamber Orchestra -- demonstrated once again why.

Festival music director and conductor Gary Sheldon has perfected programming to space, time and circumstance -- placing within this 1870 church's inspiring interior well-played, popular works tending toward the high-minded.

As this year's guest artist, O'Riley had been performing steadily for days, with the Thursday concert capping his residency. His choice of vehicles, the Grieg Piano Concerto, may be overplayed to the point of annoyance for many listeners. Yet he managed to turn in a fresh, enjoyable perspective.

O'Riley focused on making his lines sing, imbuing each with studied shape and detail.

If you closed your eyes, you could almost imagine his hands articulating his internal singing voice, with no intermediary. Moreover, he and Sheldon applied carefully chosen dollops of rubato to the first two movements, turning the performance into a romantic adventure, a nice change from the more bravura, clipped interpretation that has become the standard.

Sheldon never has shied from the big pieces in this venue, in which sounds can linger in the atmosphere for several seconds. Whether or not the hall's character influenced his and the orchestra's interpretation of Brahms' Symphony No. 2, the reading worked delightfully.

First, this was a true "chamber'' performance. The musicians, many of whom have played many summers here for Sheldon, bother to listen to one another -- moreso than many members of full-time orchestras. The ensemble nature of the playing of the winds in the second movement, for instance, was a rare treat.

And it worked nicely into Sheldon's overall viewpoint: a relaxed, lyrical celebration of summer, nature and country life.

Did this Brahms 2 resound with regal splendor? No. It made its own statement, one not often heard in contemporary times. It was like a perfect summer day in the Austrian countryside, and made me, once again, grateful that Brahms worked on his summer vacations.

The concert opened with Beethoven's Fidelio Overture. A brisk performance could not disguise some intonation and coordination problems. but these disappeared as the evening moved ahead.

©2002 The Columbus Dispatch