A fun night, in and out of the chamber

IT was great fun, and certainly seemed to make a large audience at the Ford Amphitheatre happy. But the evening of chamber music promised at the outdoor venue Tuesday was only nominally that, at least until after intermission.

The program’s first half was a jolly showcase for “Lynn Harrell & Friends,” the friends being the beloved cellist’s wife, violinist Helen Nightengale; violinist Bruce Dukov; and pianist Valentina Lisitsa. They played five virtuosic duos with panache, and the crowd cheered them on. After intermission, there was Tchaikovsky’s wondrous A-minor Trio to satisfy those who came for real chamber music.

The trio, played with sensitivity and force by Lisitsa, Nightengale and Harrell, realized its character as a work of equal parts melancholy and triumph, the composer’s true colors. For a supposedly intimate piece, it often grows larger than life, yet it is endlessly touching and poignant, for all its bombast. The three players gave it all its blood.

The rest of the evening was fluff, yet wildly entertaining. Closely miked, the violins often seemed scratchy; even so, they jumped through hoops with ease. First, there was a duo for violin and cello by Handel-Halvorsen, then Harrell gave a noble reading of Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante with the light-fingered Lisitsa.

Harrell and Dukov -- he is the brilliant longtime concertmaster of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra -- amazed the crowd with Dukov’s transcription of Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Then, the two violinists played Dukov’s Variations on “Happy Birthday” in honor of longtime arts patron Larry Kruger; this showy piece often refers to the flamboyant styles of Paganini and Wieniawski.

The first half closed with the violinists and Lisitsa playing Moritz Moszkowski’s pleasant but forgettable Suite, Opus 71. They made beautiful music. It just wasn’t probing.