What’s to do on a Monday night here in Bangor? And who really cares? If you’re a chamber music lover, then you might care, and you’d do well to, because that’s the night Arcady Music Festival intermittently presents its congenial local concerts at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Bangor. This past Monday was such a night, with musical presentations by well-known Bangor flutist Liz Downing and pianist John Haskell.

With spritely performances of works by Gabriel Faure, Dmitri Shostakovich and contemporary American composer Robert Muczynski, Downing and Haskell were nothing if not cheerful and inviting about their work. Downing is a champ on the flute, with a particular gift for moving along a line of notes with easy and animated skill.

That said, Haskell’s dominating volume on piano too often overpowered her handiwork. It’s not that Downing is a delicate player. She’s got some chutzpah, as heard in the sweepingly romantic Concertino for Flute and Piano, Opus 107, by Cecile Chaminade. (And when’s the last time you heard a live performance of a work by a woman composer?) Though these two clearly like working together and have a visible camaraderie, the effect was not always one of togetherness when it came to the blending of volume. There’s nothing worse than straining to hear beauty.

Former Arcady Youth Competition winner Douglas Quint gave a soulful reading on solo bassoon of Maurice Ravel’s Piece en forme de Habanera. Here’s another rarity — that singular sound of the plaintive bassoon without the accompaniment of 90 other symphony musicians. His performance was quite stunning, indeed, and all too short.

Thank goodness Quint, who now plays professionally in New York City, returned for the second half of the program to present Carl Maria von Weber’s Andante et Rondo Ungarese. Weber did not write this piece originally for the bassoon, but its jazzy, nearly goofy melodies gave Quint a chance to prove the good-humored, whimsical virtuosity of his abilities. He and Haskell, who accompanied, nearly cracked themselves up with the twists and turns of this otherwise tricky number. The piece was rivaled only by the finale with Downing, Haskell and Quint teaming up for a convivial fugue.

A 1997 Arcady Youth Competition winner, Sam Feldman, resident of Bowdoin and current student at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, emotively played pieces by Bach and Mendelssohn. Feldman is one of several youth performers traveling with Arcady professionals on this program, which also was presented Sunday in Bar Harbor and Tuesday in Dover-Foxcroft.

There’s still time to catch it again at 7 p.m. April 3 at Stearns High School in Millinocket. Rumor has it this might be the best show in town up there on a Friday night. It certainly was in Bangor on a Monday night.

For information about the Arcady Spring Concert Series, call 288-3151 or 288-2141.