For the final concerts of its 25th anniversary season, Chamber Music Hawaii chose a trio for its Tresemble group: a Brahms Serenade, a Mozart Flute Quartet, K. 285, and a surprise — the Hawaiian premiere of Quintet by Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933).

Few have heard of KargElert, and even fewer have heard his music.

Oboist Scott Janusch opened the concert by explaining how Karg-Elert came to be included on the concert, including an entertaining story about unpublished manuscripts, parts and scores that didn't match, and the adventure of reconciling discrepancies and transcribing manuscripts into legible music.

All in a couple-of-months' work for musicologist-performers, and all for the benefit of local audiences.

CMH's program provided a helpful summary of Karg-Elert's life, tactfully skipping over some of the more sensational parts — as when he was shunned in Germany because of his popularity in England (the result of World War I politics); when he was denied permission to marry the woman he loved; his illegitimate child with someone else and his subsequent marriage to the daughter of the mother of his child; his disastrous tour of the United States; and the position in Philadelphia that he declined.

The program did, however, explain Karg-Elert's many stylistic debts and the influence popular music had on his style. Composing in an era dominated by giants — Stravinsky, Debussy, Strauss operas such as "Elektra" and "Salome," and Schoenberg's atonal experiments — Karg-Elert created no theories or tonal systems, no structural inventions or new genres.

Instead, he composed a charming, "gemutlich" (convivial) Quintet, a work of Classical traditions and Romantic sentiments, lightly colored by popular styles.

Well played by Janusch (oboe), Marsha Schweitzer (bassoon), John Parrish (horn), Scott Anderson (clarinet) and James Moffitt (clarinet), Karg-Elert's Quintet turned out to be both interesting and fun, and more typical of the bulk of early 20th-century music than were any of the era's masterworks.

Oddly enough, it was not the surprise but the de rigueur piece that discomfited. Mozart's Flute Quartet is a blithely lyric work, a paragon of homophony (a melody singing above supporting harmonies).

The danger is in playing it that way: Mozart did not compose much homophony: even his simplest accompaniments yield polyphony (multiple melodic lines played simultaneously) and dance with the primary melody.

Flutist Susan McGinn played beautifully, every line a graceful arabesque, and her melodies truly sang. Cellist Karen Bechtel provided firm support throughout, and, excepting occasional struggles with intonation, violinist Claire Sakai Hazzard and violist Mark Butin filled in nicely. There was, however, only faint polyphony and little dialogue between.

CMH closed the concert with Brahms' Serenade, performed as a nonet (nine instruments) by McGinn, Hazzard, Butin, Bechtel, Schweitzer, Parrish, Anderson and Moffitt, joined by Geoffrey Stone (bass).

Most audiences know Brahms through his heavier, more serious works: symphonies, choral works, chamber music, sonatas. The Serenade is an early work composed for "small orchestra" that revealed a lighter, less self-conscious side of Brahms.

Except for a few hair-raising passages of shaky intonation and ensemble, the whole was very enjoyable and made for a satisfying close to the season, which ends with a repeat performance on Monday at Paliku Theatre.

Ruth Bingham reviews classical music for The Advertiser.