By Daniel Buckwalter

A Steinway piano took center stage at the Wildish Theater in downtown Springfield, and its sound was glorious.

Every grand piano needs a good driver sitting on the bench, of course, a pianist whose mastery of the instrument is such that the average listener can get the sense the pianist is pulling the internal strings of this stately instrument at his or her command, with both tenderness and tenacity, and that the Steinway on stage, not unlike a thoroughbred racing stallion, is happily along for the ride. The Steinway is alive. It is built for high-end playing, and it and the pianist are as one.

Eunhye Grace Choi

Such was the case on June 14 and 15 when Chamber Music Amici — and its artistic director/pianist Eunhye Grace Choi — took on a pair of piano trio works, one by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the other by Maurice Revel, in front of appreciative audiences at the Wildish. It marked the final performance of this, Amici’s 17th season, and it was a riveting way to mark its finale.

Choi was joined on stage by Amici regulars Tomás Cotik, violinist, and Steven Pologe, cellist, and to be fair, they were wonderful, but Amici’s season-finale belonged to Choi and her splendid work on the keyboard.

She joked to the audience after Sunday’s performance that she felt she had been through a workout. I don’t doubt it, because each piece — each emotionally different from the other — has its dense and complicated moments. This was work, and Choi was up to the challenge.

Mozart’s Piano Trio No. 5 in C Major is a lush, melodic, almost romantic, three-movement piece, starting with the opening sequence of the first movement.

What struck me was how Choi, playing at times with just her left hand or her right hand, would cup her free hand and make circular movements with it, as if willing the Steinway to give her more emotional depth. It was as if she was conducting the piano rather than playing it, and it was mesmerizing.

Ravel’s three-movement Piano Trio in A Minor is a more intricately intense piece from the get-go, and Choi was ready. A woman sitting in front of me was filming this on her phone, and while that usually annoys me, I found myself transfixed this time by the magnified screen, watching Choi’s fingers gliding like rapid fire up and down the keyboard.

The opening moments of the third movement are a deeply mournful sequence played slowly, solemnly, and with just the left hand, each note reaching deeper into the bass of the piano. It is commanding, and Choi gave it the proper reverence.

If you have not heard Eunhye Grace Choi play piano before, there is next season with Chamber Music Amici coming up, of course, and she is also artistic director of The Classical on Broadway series at The Jazz Station.

It will be well worth your time.