the fuller sounds of modern instruments and the season launch of Chamber Music by Candlelight, the free series featuring BSO players and friends presented by Community Concerts at Second Presbyterian Church. I took in the first half of the off-beat program, which opened with Schumann's "Fairy Tales" for clarinet (William Jenken), viola (Karin Brown) and piano (Sylvie Beaudoin). The performance was technically refined, interpretively vivid and involving.

Eric Ewazen's Trio for horn (Philip Munds), bassoon (Phillip Kolker) and piano (Lura Johnson) was new to my ears, and most agreeable. The composer, a longtime Juilliard faculty member, employs a tonal style to imaginative effect here, tightly integrating the instruments in colorful fashion and, as in the bittersweet second movement, generating considerable melodic warmth. The playing was first-rate.

Bernard Garfield, former principal bassoonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, also writes in a decidedly conservative style. His Quartet No. 3 for bassoon (Julie Gregorian), violin (Jonathan Carney), viola (Richard Field) and cello (Dariusz Skoraczewski) is inconsequential, but pretty. A few uncentered bassoon notes aside, the performers gave it a solid account.

Last week (I told you I was behind), my musical adventure came courtesy of Mobtown Modern, the fun and funky ensemble that kicked off its season at a new home, Metro Gallery. It's a good fit of downtown music and unstructured space. The sizable turnout of mostly young listeners, some of them sprawled on couches, seemed fully engaged in the program, which revolved around the technique of looping and contained works written within the past six years.

The opening set with violinist Todd Reynolds was, for me, the high point of the evening. His own virtuoso piece, "Outerborough," with its percussive spice, and the clever interactive Etudes by Phil Kline proved especially potent. Mobtown co-curator Erik Spangler's "Pre-Dawn Artscape Ghost Town" had some great things going on in it, including a recurring soundtrack of a train and the striking effects of such instruments as melodica, theremin and toy megaphone. Just when the music was really cooking, though, it fizzled out. In my quaintly old-fashioned way, I missed a definitive arrival point.

I could have done without the vocal improv of a trio called Vox Thread; the performance ventured dangerously close to another-amateur-night-in-Dixie territory. The concluding medley of DJ culture songs was tightly played, for the most part, by an ensemble of strings, winds, percussion (not to mention electric guitar and rubbed wine glasses), but it could have used more heat.

Still, it looks like Mobtown will settle into the venue nicely and continue its invaluable effort to hip-i-fy Baltimore's music scene.

If you've read this far, you could use some relief, so here are samples of Ronn McFarland, performing his "Cathedral Cave"; and Todd Reynolds, demonstrating his electric flair: