The Music Club of Santa Barbara continued its largess to the community last Saturday with its matinee concert, offering old masters and some newer music by Paul Hindemith and Robert Muczynski.

The club is one of Santa Barbara’s low-profile treasures, offering fine music concerts regularly and charging no admission for them. For serious music lovers, it’s the best deal in town.

Saturday’s afternoon program in the Library’s Faulkner Gallery began with pianist Ellen Feldman, the club’s 2008 scholarship winner, playing Mozart’s Fantasia in C minor, K. 475, followed by Chopin’s Etude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3, and Etude in G-flat major, Op. 10, No. 5. Feldman is one of those wonderful young performers who also excels in academics, both at Dos Pueblos High School and in the Santa Barbara County Science Fair.

Her future seems as bright as her talent.

Next up were two works for flutes, played by Mary Jo Hartle and Mark Sherwin, mature musicians who are also scientists (and Hartle writes children’s books, presumably in her spare time). The duo played Hindemith’s ethereal Sonatine (in Canon Style), Op. 31, No. 3, and Muczynski’s Duos, Op. 34, a modern work in six movements.
Concluding the program was Johannes Brahms’ Trio in A minor, Op. 114, richly played by Nancy Mathison, clarinet, Ervin Klinkon, cello, and Sally Klinkon, piano. These beautifully trained chamber musicians sailed through the composer’s livelier passages, and also brought out the underlying darkness of his world view.

The club’s next concert will take place on Feb. 13 at 11 a.m. at the First Methodist Church. More fine music will no doubt be served up, including songs and arias by “Delightful Divas,” all at no cost.