In watching Doane play his instrument I see not so much a cellist as I do a consummate artist — one whose level of phrasing and musicianship is so overwhelming I suspect he could produce beautiful music with nothing more than a comb and tissue paper. What’s more, Doane’s particular brand of music-making appears contagious to all sitting in close proximity to him: Pianist Xak Bjerken and violinist Renata Knific succumbed to "Doane fever" almost immediately after the cellist’s first entrance in the Trio.

Bjerken in the first movement proved he has what it takes to play Beethoven: sufficient strength to unleash the power and unbridled energy demanded by the composer, and a delicacy of touch sufficient to add polish to the softer, gentler sections. His phrasing in the calm chorale that opens the Andante Cantabile was beyond reproach, achieving an equality of voicing throughout each chord progression. Although his ornaments were occasionally muddied during the first two movements, Bjerken ripped through the tricky turns and trills during the dazzling virtuosic finale with confidence and panache.

Knific is a solid player with good rhythmic and ensemble skills, but her phrasing seems to exist somewhat independently of the two other players, rather than as a synergistic complement to them. As a result, there were moments where I felt I was listening to a coupling of solo plus duo in concertante style, rather than a seamless, homogeneous ensemble of three.

The Haydn Divertimento in E-flat for Horn, Violin and Cello, which opened the program, is a sober reminder that not all of the venerable composer’s chamber compositions are as good as his quartets.

There’s little to recommend in this vacuous, predictable and overly repetitive writing other than the sheer virtuosity of the horn part – which is, to be sure, the one and only point to the piece. But if you’re content with virtuosity, you’ll find ample pleasure in the rapid arpeggiation sections, quick octave leaps and shameless showing off in the tricky top-tone (altissimo) register.

Peter Kurau was outstanding in his execution of the many virtuosic elements in the work, although the dour hornist, who couldn’t muster anything resembling a smile before or after the performance, might benefit from some coaching on the art of stage presence. The ensemble included cellist Rosemary Elliott and violinist Mark Kaplan.

Unlike ‘Papa’ Haydn, whose chamber music output was extensive, Prokofiev wrote very little in this genre. The Quintet in G Minor, for oboe (Peggy Pearson); clarinet (Deborah Chodacki); violin (Renata Knific); viola (Michelle LaCourse) and bass (Edward Castilano) was designed by Prokofiev to accompany a ballet about circus life. Indeed, each movement sounds like a parody of one or another element of the circus, such as the second movement which begins with a bass solo and resembles a couple of elephants dancing.

I consider Prokofiev a great composer, but this piece hardly presents a compelling argument in support of this. Much of the writing in the six-movement Quintet is a second-rate amalgam of Poulenc and Stravinsky (each of whom, like Prokofiev, was active in Paris during the 1920s), couched in the musical language of neo-classicism.

What’s missing in this work is what Hindemith would refer to as the craft of musical composition — of which there is precious little. In place of musical form and thematic development, Prokofiev gives us non-stop parody, and the stylistic elements borrowed from Poulenc and Stravinsky come off sounding like bad Poulenc and bad Stravinsky.

The level of performance was, generally speaking, strong in the winds yet somewhat uneven in the strings. During the steady eighth-note passages in the third movement, none of the strings was able to agree on where to place the downbeats. Still, the ensemble as a whole balanced well and got into the motor-rhythmic groove in convincing fashion.

Kudos to Pearson, the magnificent oboist who managed not to pass out during the painfully slow (and lengthy) Adagio pesante — a chops-killing movement where the oboe must sustain lengthy pitches in the instrument’s low register seemingly forever.

Details box

What: Skaneateles Festival, Week 1 (Musical Memories)
Where: First Presbyterian Church, Skaneateles
When: Friday, August 14
Who: Xak Bjerken, piano; Edward Castilano; Deborah Chodacki, clarinet; Steven Doane, cello; Rosemary Elliott, cello; Elinor Freer, piano; Mark Kaplan, violin; Renata Knific, violin; W. Peter Kurau, horn; Michelle LaCourse, viola; Peggy Pearson, oboe
Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes, including intermission
Call: (315) 685-7418
Ticket prices: $16 to $30
Website: www.skanfest.org (order tickets online or by phone)
Next: Brook Farm, 7:30 P.M. Saturday, Aug. 15 (Bach, Beethoven)