SALZBURG, Austria – Erich Wolfgang Korngold is one of the featured composers at the festival this season. His opera “Die tote Stadt” is being performed, in addition to many smaller works. For example, the Austrian Benjamin Schmid performed his violin concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic, under Seiji Ozawa.

Mr. Schmid also participated in Korngold’s Suite for Two Violins, Cello, and Piano Left Hand. The suite was part of a chamber program that also included Mahler and Schoenberg. Mahler on a chamber program? Yes – more about that in a moment.

Players on this program formed a quartet, and they, in addition to Mr. Schmid, were another violinist, who doubled as a violist, Hanna Weinmeister, a native Salzburger; Quirine Viersen, a Dutch cellist; and Silke Avenhaus, a German pianist. All are quite young, and three of them either attended or teach at Salzburg’s Mozarteum, or both. The concert was held in the Mozarteum. One had the feeling of a burst of fresh local talent.

Mr. Schmid, however, was outstanding in this group, and he is indeed one of the outstanding young violinists in the world – one may not even need the qualifier “young.”

The evening began with Mahler’s Quartet in A Minor for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano. This is a single movement, composed when Mahler was a 16-year-old student at the Vienna Conservatory. As Herbert Glass explained in his program notes, the work was not published until 1973, in an edition by the composer Peter Ruzicka, who happens to be artistic director of the Salzburg Festival.

This is a lush, soulful work, an outpouring that makes you think of “Werther” and all that Romantic feeling. It’s a good work, too – deserving of being played, quite aside from its authorship. The young four did well by it, each one committed to his part, each one listening to and conversing with the other three. The pianist was guilty of some overpedaling, but this did little harm.

Mr. Schmid made a gorgeous sound on his Stradivarius, and that sound, along with the playing, was devoid of sentimentality. It was, indeed, a rather masculine sound, although Mr. Schmid could adjust, according to the phrase at hand. He gave the impression of being a serious-minded fellow, without being overly grave.

The Korngold suite was one of the many works commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, the pianist who lost his right arm in World War I. In recent years, both Leon Fleisher and Gary Graffman have given many performances of it, having suffered neurological damage in their own right arms (although Mr. Fleisher is now back to two-hand music).

The suite begins with a Preludium and Fugue, which might have been a tad more coloristic from our foursome. Ms. Avenhaus, the pianist, banged some notes – particularly sustained ones – which did the mu sic no good. She was altogether too stiff for this movement. The string players, however, continued the sensitivity they had shown in the Mahler.

Korngold next takes up the waltz, which he transforms into something elaborate, unexpected, and fun. Here Mr. Schmid shone. He used a honeyed, ultra-Viennese tone – but still retained his strength, a certain masculinity. This is a tasteful, clean violinist, and even when he is in Fritz Kreisler territory, he observes decorum. He is a kind of streamliner of schmaltz.

In the next movement – Groteske – the cello comes to the fore, and Ms. Viersen handled the jagged rhythms understatedly but effectively. And Ms. Avenhaus’s boldness – even aggressiveness – was more welcome than it had been. In addition, she was affecting in the lyrical middle section. As for Mr. Schmid, he seemed to get a kick out of playing one of Korngold’s melodies, jig-like. He certainly should have.

The Lied comes next, and, in it, the quartet was lovely, indulging but not overindulging, taking the listener away as in a dream. And the finale was sheer delight, a kind of reveling in music – not just Korngold, but music itself. The rubato toward the end was superbly judged, the players breathing as one (besides). When it was over, the audience fairly screamed their approval, calling the players back again and again. Frankly, I don’t remember so many curtain calls for a chamber group – not at the conclusion of a concert’s first half.

After intermission, Ms. Weinmeister and Ms. Avenhaus appeared for Schoenberg’s “Fantasy” for violin and piano. Both were on the beam, faithful to Schoenberg’s spikiness and lyricism alike.The second (and final) movement of this work is marked Scherzando, and Ms. Weinmeister conveyed true amusement.

And closing the printed program was Schoenberg’s beloved early work,”Verklarte Nacht” (“Transfigured Night”), which has several guises, of which this was perhaps the most unusual: a trio for piano, violin, and cello, arranged by Eduard Steuermann, an associate of Schoenberg’s in Vienna. This arrangement, made in 1932, did not see publication until 1993.

“Verklarte Nacht,” in whatever version, can be a bit too syrupy, or lugubrious, and Ms. Avenhaus, Ms. Viersen, and Mr. Schmid succumbed to a little of that. But the work eventually bared its power, with the musicians catching its sweep. By the end, if we were not quite transfigured, we were satisfied and touched.

And then Hanna Weinmeister rejoined the group for one encore, a Dvoyak bagatelle in G minor, which was restrained but flavored – maturely played, really. These players are young, but definitely not dumb.

Fine as they were as an ensemble, it was obvious that Mr. Schmid is something special. I have contended many times that we are in a golden age of violinists, if we would only recognize it. Hahn, Vengerov, Bell, Midori, Chang, Shaham – those aren’t shabby names, and that of Schmid is one of the most valuable.