Some in the audience had been expertly primed in Brian Foster's early evening lecture, but Chamber Music New Zealand's Einstein's Universe concert on Monday night was a stimulating experience in itself, regardless of any connections there may have been with the man who gave us the Theory of Relativity.
Two of Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu's Madrigal Stanzas had a blithe fluency. Violinist Jack Liebeck and pianist Stephen De Pledge rippled through the first, and caught the jaunty humour of the second - so well that one wished the remaining three had been programmed.
The shapely opening of a spirited Mozart E minor Sonata took on a distinctly Jewish strain in the context of this concert; as did the second movement's principal theme - a minuet by name, but a song of melancholy in performance.
Ernest Bloch's Baal Shem revealed the duo fully-fired, saluting a composer who felt little need to rein in his musical energies when emotional fervour took over.
Samuel Holloway's new commission, Matter, was a good deal cooler. Liebeck conducted a rigorous four beats to the bar while De Pledge and three string players (Victoria Sayles alongside Julia and Andrew Joyce) explored what was introduced as a world of organised chaos.
