When applied to a chamber music orchestra, the word `young’ can have an unflattering twist. Indeed, classical music may be the only performing art left these days that celebrates maturity in the way a wine lover would.

Yet to call Quebec City’s Les Violons du Roy, which performed Sunday afternoon at the Maine Center for the Arts, a young group is perfectly complimentary. It has nothing to do with the group’s founding a mere 15 years ago when artistic director Bernard Labadie was a restless college student. Or that the average age of the players is 30. Or that there is a lack of wisdom in the playing (which there isn’t).

It’s that Les Violons has the enthusiastic vigor and technical brightness of a teen-ager — in the best sense of that word. What’s more: The 18 musicians make fine use of this quality under the baton of Labadie, himself a bouncy and amiable fellow.

Don’t let this general assessment be misleading, however. Les Violons du Roy has a remarkably high level of musicianship. In Sunday’s program of Baroquiana, the strings performed with their signature period bows on modern instruments and were joined by two vivid oboists, a full-bodied bassoonist and a scrupulous harpsichordist.

The sound that is created from this aesthetic choice is brisk, even dashing at times, but never unfeeling. The rhythmic constancy and color, for instance, during two of Bach’s orchestral suites — No. 2 in B minor (with flutist Andri Papillon) and No. 1 in C major — were exceptional. Those same features were annoying in Pachelbel’s Canon in D major, perhaps the group’s weakest offering. (Of course, it’s possible that Pachelbel’s hyperpopular, overplayed tune would be annoying no matter how stylistically presented, so Les Violons get credit for chutzpah alone.)

Two concerti grossi by Handel — in D major and in D minor — were less penetrating than the Bach pieces, but nevertheless had Labadie’s nearly joyful touch. And if anyone found moments of this concert somewhat lulling due to the elaborate ornamentation of sound, there was, as an encore, Bach’s so-called “Air for the G String.” A true showpiece — especially for the first violinist — this finale overflowed with aching beauty.

The first stop in a fall tour, Sunday’s concert was a keen combination of young and old by Les Violons du Roy. They bring the brawn of the modern century to the glory of the early music movement, and the result is an ambitious and invigorating approach.