Concert review: East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Anthony McGill (clarinet) Tai Murray (violin) Nathan Farrington (double bass) Sivan Magen (harp) Shai Wosner (piano)

To mark 40 years requires a celebratory programme, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society threw a sold-out fete that reminded everyone in the audience why string ensembles matter. Anchored by the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), the party began with Errollyn Wallen’s 2007 Concerto grosso, a rocketing opening with violinist Tai Murray ferociously focused from the start. In the seductive second movement, double bassist Nathan Farrington was centre-stage, with Murray and pianist Shai Wosner adeptly conjuring up a smoky jazz lounge. Though actual champagne would come later, the bubbly mood had already begun.

As a tribute to composer Philip Maneval, the outgoing executive director of PCMS, the group unveiled a world premiere, A Mostly Sunny Day, which, aside from some gentle pizzicato raindrops, seemed sunny indeed. Maneval has cultivated and maintained one of the most authoritative chamber music organisations in the country – how he has also found time to write music is a happy mystery.

ECCO ended the evening with Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings, using a lean approach that emphasised the work’s folk origins. Its high spirits made a capstone to the evening’s buoyant mood.

As if all this weren’t enough, before the interval, clarinettist Anthony McGill (principal with the New York Philharmonic) was a fearless soloist in Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, in a charmingly suave turn that brought the house down.

BRUCE HODGES