Chamber Music Hawaii's Tresemble collaborated with the Onium Ballet Project to present one of this year's most distinctive concerts: two short ballets from the 1920s — one dark, one light — separated by a charming non-sequitur, Mozart's Horn Quintet, K.407, that served as a kind of musical intermission. The concert heralded the second half of the concert season. There are three more concerts remaining.

Mozart composed this quintet in 1782, the same year as his "Abduction from the Seraglio" and only a few years before the set of quartets he dedicated to Haydn. But in Mozart's short life, those few years constituted an era, one that began with perfecting classical genres and ended with inventing a more complex high classic style.

Mozart's still strongly homophonic writing for the horn quintet is less a chamber work than a horn solo, or perhaps concerto, accompanied by a string quartet — a quartet with two violas instead of two violins.

The quintet showcased hornist Jonathan Parrish as a smoothly accomplished soloist, often in tandem with violinist Claire Sakai Hazzard, whose lines danced in graceful partnership. The two were firmly supported by cellist Karen Bechtel, the two inner viola parts deftly supplied by Mark Butin and Hung Wu.

Onium Project's first ballet was Paul Hindemith's "The Demon," composed in 1922 and only rarely staged since. Composed in two scenes, the story varies, depending on the choreographer. In general, it is a tale of a demon who seduces two young sisters, who lose their innocence vying for his attentions. Feb. 16 was its Hawai'i premiere.

The audience that night might have followed choreographer Minou Lallemand's interpretation more easily if the program had provided an outline and more exact translations of the dances. The dances following the introduction to the second half are all parts of the same number, "Four Dances of the Supplicants/Competitors" (this heading was omitted), in which the two women attempt various guises to woo the Demon: as a child, in a voluminous robe (not the program's "young maiden"), as an orchid in full bloom (not "blossoming"), and in a red fury.

There are few symbols more powerfully sexual than an orchid, and the German's "ganz erschlossen" is an unusual way of saying "in full bloom" while implying the more literal "fully open" or "fully developed." No wonder the Demon responded, and no wonder her sister responded in a red fury of jealousy!

Lallemand's choreography did not entirely capture the power and brutality of Hindemith's score, the women's transformation from innocence to base emotions — raw sexuality, uncontrolled rage — and to the "beaten animals" of their final dance before the Demon returns, unchanged and triumphant. Both score and story owe much to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," "primitivism," and avant-garde dance of the 1920s.

Lallemand told a prettier tale, with unwaveringly beautiful moves and the women en pointe, a G-rated version that surely had girls and boys in the audience wanting in on the fun.

The dancers — Joshua Cho (the Demon), Lauren Easley (First Sister), and Caitlin Nichols (Second Sister) — were a joy to watch, skilled and expressive.

Onium's second ballet was Bohuslav Martinu's "The Kitchen Revue," a whimsical comedy about a Pot (Joshua Cho), its Lid (Carolyn Wilt), a Dishrag (Benjamin Dorado), a Spoon (Malia Yamamoto), and a Broom (Jerrica Ching).

Martinu was Czech, but the ballet is quintessentially French: while Lid is out shopping, Pot becomes involved with Spoon, who is something of a tart. Lid of course retaliates by hooking up with Dishrag, which makes Broom jealous, and so it goes through tangos and Charlestons, pas de quatre and solo lamentations, including even a "sword" fight — a rarity in ballet.

Sharie Hartwell's costumes were clever and stylish; Daniel Sakimura's lighting painted moods without intruding; and Lallemand's choreography presented a richly detailed story with distinct characters. The audience was enthralled.

Throughout the ballets, different configurations of CMH's Tresemble performed admirably — 10 musicians in the Hindemith, six in the Martinu — led with spirit and precision by conductor Ann Krinistsky.