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During a recent performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Pezzo Capriccioso,” a handful of audience members leaned forward attentively, their eyes bright, a few encouraging snuffles escaping from the otherwise hushed parterre.

He dashed through Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso — whose only connection to Spain is the dedication to Pablo de Sarasate — with undeniable brilliance, especially in the coda.

His “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso,” a Camille Saint-Saëns violin piece transcribed for the accordion, was a 7-pointer on a scale that went to 10.

His “Quarrel” movement was vituperative, but the other two movements were more than virtuosic, the “Slightly Tipsy” movement drenched in swirling color and the “Capriccioso” lost in a daydream.

Then, lest three movements of emotionally churning Respighi be deemed a walk in the park for a firebrand like Mutter, she followed it with Saint-Saëns’s punishing “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.”