Galway flute dazzles Maine Arts Center> Musical fellowship keynote of concert

When he was 20, Mozart called his own work “pleasing to the ear and natural … written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be pleased without knowing why.” He was talking about his piano concertos, but all these years later Mozart’s words are worth repeating to describe a concert by flutist James Galway and the Tokyo String Quartet Friday at the Maine Center for the Arts. Certainly the Maine Center audience was a mix of learned and less learned — as any audience would be. But this combo of classical musicians had a quality so pleasing and effervescent that it slipped into a category past “why.”

Still, it’s worth noting that this benchmark performance of flute and strings was a triumph of technical ability. James Galway, whose gigs have ranged from Carnegie Hall to “Sesame Street,” is one of the shiniest and most loquacious flutists alive. His fluttering tongue is equally comfortable playing the flute as it is bantering with the audience. And although some might find his commentaries speckled with an air of superiority, there’s no arguing that his playing bursts with impeccable skill.

Both the Quartet and Galway play with such perfect definition that you can’t help but be drawn into the brightness of their world. They angled hard and light and breathlessly during Mozart’s Quartet in D Major for Flute and Strings (K. 285). It was inevitable for the audience to ask: Does music get any prettier than this?

Like a good storyteller, Galway knows the value of inflection and moved his flute through the range of inspired expressions during this piece. The three string players on this piece — Mikhail Kopelman on violin, Kazuhide Isomura on viola, Sadao Harada on cello — showed a wealth of nuance without a note of fussiness or braggadocio.

Similarly, Beethoven’s Serenade in D Major for Flute, Violin and Viola, Opus 25, featured a tender flute and whirlwind of strings. Although this was another remarkable example of the artistic fellowship these musicians accomplish with one another, violinist Kikuei Ikeda gave an outstanding and voluptuous performance during the andante.

In the second half of the concert, the Quartet was guileless throughout Haydn’s String Quartet in D Minor, Opus 76, No. 2, also known as “The Fifths.” What power these musicians have for employing punctuation marks in their clean musical choices. They have it all: grace, wit, density, speed, clarity. With nearly 30 years as a distinguished group, these guys have nothing left to prove. They’re great. Consequently, they end up translucently proving the very essence of the music they adopt for each concert.

That confidence extends to the facility with which they handle Galway’s star power, too. He’s the popular attention-getter on this tour of eight American venues. The Quartet patiently celebrates his musicianship and sticks with its own brand of sensitivity, elasticity and smartness when it comes to the music.

The walloping closing piece of the program was Anton Reicha’s Quintet in A Major for Flute, 2 Violins, Viola and Cello, Opus 105. Two encores included “Loch Mozart,” a spritely piece which mingled Scottish airs with Mozart strains, and a speedy medley Galway called “Bach’s Greatest, Fastest Hits.”

Some audience members left disgruntled because Galway didn’t play from his Irish folk repertoire. (For them, there were plenty of CDs on sale in the lobby.) Others may have felt that the concert was too heavy with 18th century composers. But most saw the alchemy that sets this sparkling group apart as extraordinary ambassadors of chamber music.