Thursday night I was privileged to hear some of the most gorgeous flute playing I’ve ever come across in fifty years of frequent concert-going.

The occasion was the Seattle Symphony’s Mostly Mozart series at Benaroya Hall. The soloist was Demarre McGill, the orchestra’s principal flute, performing Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 1 in G Major. (The program repeats Saturday, March 2.)

From his first notes, the effect was astonishing. It was the tone he drew from his instrument which caught the ear first, and continued to throughout the performance. Totally clean, liquid, mellifluous—i.e., honeyed—in the best sense of the word, rounded and beautiful, it beckoned you in. There was never a breathy moment. The articulation was absolutely clear, the legato smooth as silk. He played with almost no vibrato, as would have been the style in Mozart’s day, which made the sound ring even more true. Add to this fine musicianship and phrasing, technique easy and unobtrusive, and you have a performance satisfyingly lovely on all counts.

Guest conductor Douglas Boyd led the small orchestra of about 30 musicians (the rest are playing for Seattle Opera’s La Bohème) closely in tune with McGill.

They had begun the concert with a work even more astonishing, the eleven-minute Symphony No 1 in E-flat major by Mozart, written when he was eight or, as conductor Boyd commented, maybe eight and a half. The first movement takes up at least half the time. Listening to it and hearing how the little boy had developed the theme and built the harmonies among five different string lines, horns, oboes, and bassoons, it’s easy to understand that while his father Leopold may have pushed him, nothing could have held back Wolfgang’s genius. (We may owe it to dad, in fact, that his music became so well known and recognized early on.) This symphony is by no means kid’s play.

Boyd had a fine sense of Mozart style, and the orchestra responded with a will in this and also in the lengthy “Haffner” Serenade No. 7 which followed intermission with the brief March in D Major. Mozart composed the Haffner, nearly an hour long, as incidental music for a society wedding, and it is upbeat all the way.

Several movements in the middle include a solo violin part, taken here by the orchestra’s associate concertmaster Emma McGrath, who played with silvery tone and fine technique. While the orchestra performed all the works with minimal vibrato, McGrath used it in her solos and this felt a little jarring after the clean sound of everything that had gone before. Boyd imbued this celebratory serenade with vigor and a joyful ambience, and one could only marvel at the variety Mozart put into three different minuets and trios among the eight movements.

Who wouldn’t like to have this played at a wedding? But, it might upstage the bride — everyone would stop to listen.