There seems to be no limit to Kathryn Selby and her colleagues’ capacity to program and deliver captivating performances of music for the piano trio.

Selby’s strategy of assembling a trio for each season ensures freshness and vitality in the music and informed interpretations, and for this concert, she was joined by two friends with formidable resumés: cellist Julian Smiles — ACO, Australia Ensemble, Goldner String Quartet — who has previously worked with Selby, and violinist Daniel Dodds — Australian World Orchestra concertmaster and Festival Strings Lucerne Artistic Director.

Daniel Dodds, Kathryn Selby and Julian Smiles.

Mozart’s Piano trio No. 5 in C Major K. 548 (1788) opens with an assertive gesture in the three instruments followed by a dainty piano response, and this Allegro movement, built around that simple piano motif, soon becomes bolder while retaining all the typical Mozart charm with some dazzling piano passages. The limpid opening of the Andante cantabile is followed by alternating statements in each of the instruments, and Selby’s sparkling piano leads the way through this movement. The Allegro finale is effervescently cheerful.

By contrast, Alexander Zemlinsky’s Piano Trio in D Minor, Op 3. (1896),...