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Sonic plaisir, in shades of réverie and exstase, filled Calvary Church on Sunday afternoon, as Richard Hynson led the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra through late 19th- and early 20th-century French music.

He opened with Fauré's Pavane Opus 50, music with no place to go and no ax to grind. A lovely tune plays again and again, recast in different timbres and harmonies. Listening to it was like watching the light change through Calvary's glowing stained-glass windows.

Fauré's Ballade Opus 19 is more brilliant and exciting. The Ballade surges impressively through rising sequences, but never quite drives to catharsis. At least, that's how Hynson heard it. His reading was more about beauty and less about drama. At the crests of the waves, Hynson inevitably eschewed climactic outburst and drew back deftly to the prevailing atmosphere of suave equilibrium.

The MCO and piano soloist Michelle Hynson (the conductor's spouse) bought into this vision of the Ballade, and the result was lovely. I wish the pianist had been a little more precise with the rhythms of Fauré's many ornamental flourishes, but her touch and delicate phrasing were exactly right for the music and the conductor's conception of it.

Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" ended the first half. I'm a little puzzled as to why, with a 37-piece orchestra at hand, Hynson chose to do an arrangement for 11 instruments by Schoenberg (or perhaps by his student Benno Sachs). The reduction is less luxurious but more transparent than the familiar version. Calvary's warm, live acoustic helped it gain presence. The arrangement also benefited from utterly secure readings of the many solo passages, starting with Judith Ormond's fine flute work.

Two suites by Ravel, "Le Tombeau de Couperin" and "Mother Goose," filled the second half.

In these pieces, as throughout the afternoon, Hynson was sure and clear in his gestures and intentions. The players responded confidently and with a specificity of dynamics and accent that made phrases vivid and meaningful. So the "Beauty and the Beast" movement of "Mother Goose" told a little story that began with a delirious dance, veered into grotesque plea and resolved in ethereal beauty. The second movement of the "Tombeau" did not merely spin out its 6/8 skein but bobbed along as buoyant and charming as a skipping child.