Rockport opens with a tribute

In 1981, Alpher first passed through Rockport from New York with an old friend, the soprano Lila Deis, over the Fourth of July weekend. The two thought it would be a perfect town for a summer chamber music festival, and Paul Sylva, a local businessman and music lover, agreed. The festival was soon born.

Last night, speaking from the stage of Rockport’s recently built Shalin Liu Performance Center, Alpher recalled the festival’s hard-won early victories and gave heartfelt credit to Deis for her unflagging commitment to Rockport’s success. Deis died last year of complications of ovarian cancer, and Alpher wrote his new piano quartet, “Song Without Words,’’ in her memory.

It is a generally solemn work, its opening and closing movements elegiac in tone, framing a middle movement, marked “Perpetual Motion,’’ that is full of ebullient, fast-moving string writing. The piece as a whole flows by in a lyrical, neo-Romantic language that, in the composer’s words, seeks to be understood by listeners with no special musical training.

After his spoken tribute to Deis, Alpher took a seat at the piano and, together with members of the Ikarus Chamber players, gave it a devoted, caring performance.

Beyond the Alpher work, last night’s program actually appeared surprisingly modest for a 30th anniversary opening night in the festival’s new hall, especially given last year’s thoughtfully curated and musically ambitious opener to inaugurate the space.

In this case, the Ikarus ensemble began the night with a slightly decorous account of a Beethoven string trio (Op. 9, No. 1), and the evening closed with violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, cellist Andres Diaz, and Chen delivering a vigorous if less than fully realized performance of Mendelssohn’s D-Minor Piano Trio. It was no doubt assembled on short notice, given Deveau’s medical leave.

Looking ahead, this summer’s slate of programs appears to have elements of the old Rockport and the new Rockport intermingled.

It will be fascinating to see where the festival’s artistic vision ultimately evolves after it has had a chance to catch up with all the excitement and potential prominence its new home has delivered.