AUTUMN CLASSICS MUSIC FESTIVAL, various venues, Oct. 2-5; additional performances Oct. 7, 11-12 (www.pcmusicfestival.com)

As with its older Park City Music Festival counterpart, the Autumn Classics Music Festival brings together some of the finest chamber musicians from around the country.

The festival opened this past weekend with three concerts that featured some remarkable playing by the guest artists who were joined in a few of the pieces by founders Leslie and Russell Harlow.

Among the returning musicians this fall are cellist Jeffrey Solow and pianist John Novacek. They were paired Monday in Samuel Barber's Sonata for Cello and Piano, op. 6. Expressive players with a wonderful sense for nuance and articulation, they gave a forceful and bold reading that captured the work's drama and impassioned romanticism.

In a completely different vein, Novacek and clarinetist Russell Harlow joined forces last Friday for Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano. Their playing brought out the transparent textures and underscored the lyricism of the piece wonderfully.

In a similar style to Poulenc's sonata, although more lighthearted and playful, is Gian Carlo Menotti's Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano, played Monday by Harlow, Novacek and violinist Airi Yoshioka. Written when the composer was 85, the work is delightfully exuberant and witty. There are also two sly musical quotes — in the first movement, Menotti incorporates a theme from Mozart's G minor String Quintet, K. 516, and at the end of the finale, the theme from Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel."

The three players captured the transparent textures of the work with their nimble and light-handed approach to the outer movements, while bringing expressiveness to the middle movement Romanza.

These last two works were counterbalanced by Johannes Brahms' String Quartet in C minor, op. 51, no. 2, and Bedrich Smetana's Trio in G minor, op. 15, both performed Friday evening.

The foursome playing the Brahms (violinists Philippe Djokic and Yoshioka; violist Leslie Harlow; and cellist Solow) exhibited wonderful ensemble playing as they delved into the score and gave an impassioned and intense reading.

Smetana's trio is without question one of the most poignant and tragic works ever written, and Yoshioka, Solow and Novacek gave a sensitive and thoughtful account that underscored the bittersweet nature of the music.

Alexander Glazunov is a composer who doesn't crop up too frequently on programs, but Sunday and Monday his String Quintet in A major, op. 39, was played, and the musicians performing it gave a compelling reading that was breathtakingly romantic, warm and effusive.

e-mail: ereichel@desnews.com