Percussionist Timothy Adams is best known to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra audience for his timpani work at Heinz Hall. Thursday night, at Carnegie Music Hall, Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra patrons were treated to his extraordinary marimba technique and the fruits of his compositional pen.

Conducted by Andres Cardenes, Adams' three-movement "Kyoto' Reflections of the Mind" depicted his impressions of east-Asian PSO tours.

Scored for percussion, violin and string orchestra, "Kyoto" was marked by thoughtful and quiet music, punctuated with the occasional rhythmic flurry and the final movement's punchy ending.

Timothy Adams ... his 'Kyoto' gives impressions of PSO tours.

Adams showed he is at his best writing for the myriad percussion instruments in his battery. His opening gesture -- scarcely audible marimba rolls -- was particularly evocative of his musical intent to depict the rising sun.

Before the quartet even entered, Cardenes brought out voicing subtleties in the orchestra, especially the linking of the themes as they traveled throughout the sections.

Even more intriguing was Cardenes' treatment of rests. These became a significant part of the narrative flow, linking the music across silences that are too often treated like grand pauses in most performances. The effect allowed the soloists -- Scott Bell (oboe), Ronald Samuels (clarinet), Philip Pandolfi (bassoon) and Robert Lauver (horn) -- to embrace Mozart's quirky mood shifts.

Despite some intonation inconsistencies in the Adagio, the group convincingly portrayed this movement's melancholic laments, expertly balancing the mood swing from the comedy of the first movement Allegro.

In the final variation movement, both quartet and orchestra captured Mozart's final abrupt shift in mood from jocularity to a more introspective, foreboding character.

Yet, in delightfully typical fashion, Mozart and the PSCO laughed away the dark tone for a characteristically lighter end.

Cardenes and company gave a convincing performance of Astor Piazzolla's "Estaciones Portenas (Four Seasons in Buenos Aires)," an engaging work that makes deliberate references to Vivaldi.

The controlled abandon that Piazzolla portrays on his recordings are always at the surface of his music, making translations to other ensembles difficult.

Thursday's performance made it clear that Cardenes has something to say with this music, capturing many of Piazzolla's stylistic mannerisms.

The ensemble as a whole also displayed stylistic agility in this work.

However, there were disruptive moments when their gestures sounded forced, as if the classical strings were consciously trying to break out of their stylistic box.

It is a fine line to toe, and I wonder what we would think of today's Mozart interpretations if we had recordings of him playing?