On Sunday, the new auditorium at the Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture hosted the inaugural concert of the Smithsonian Chamber Players. The space still has that new hall smell, refinished in a blonde-wood louver style that reminded me of the new hall at Strathmore.

The sound is good but not spectacular. I sat in the center towards the front, and the acoustic seemed slightly muted, missing some of the liveness that brings you close to the instruments in chamber music. This concert was free (though many of the performances on the museum’s calendar for this new space are not), and an enthusiastic crowd — excited enough to clap between movements — filled nearly all the seats.

An ad hoc combination of piano trio offered a short program without intermission. The best performance came from pianist Audrey Andrist, whose facility with rapid passagework was, as always, impressive. Her part was generally the most demanding, as it often is in the piano trio repertoire. She played on a newly rebuilt 1940 Steinway grand piano from the Smithsonian collection.