At the start of their Sunday afternoon concert, the Met musicians seemed determined to present chamber music at its most intimate and relaxed.

Still, the Met musicians, long accustomed to Mr. Santi's kinetic conducting style, played ably.

And he feels the Met musicians have a special understanding of lyricism.

Ultimately, the main reason for the Met musicians to present this substantive chamber music series is simple.

The Met musicians are so enormously accomplished and experienced they may not realize how involving and impressive they are even when feeling uncomfortably on their own.

The Met musicians might have been expected to be resentful of this young newcomer.

This time out Mr. Gergiev achieved much better results with the Met musicians, who have openly griped about his idiosyncratic technique and mercurial ways.

And the Met musicians, who have heard a singer or two in their day, broke into fervent applause mixed with cheers; no polite tapping of bows on music stands here.

The Met musicians seem to do very well in limited time - showing, indeed, that some of this house's sufferings are nobly borne, even triumphed over.

Evidently, the Met musicians respond well to his flexible, go-with-the-flow, New Age style.