Something happened to Chamber Music Hawai'i's Spring Wind Quintet when it went on tour.

That something might not be identifiable, but it is definitely audible.

Last year, the quintet was a good chamber group. Then it toured Norway in May. At Monday's season opener in Paliku Theatre, they were terrific.

What was it ... the intense living and working together, the stimulation of new colleagues, new audiences, new venues and all that extra rehearsal time? Or maybe it was just that performing live at home was easier after performing with a 12-hour jet lag.

Whatever the reason, the Spring Wind Quintet presented a new sound — more mature, more smoothly integrated, with clearer and more confident communication. Secure in their interpretations, they played as a close-knit group, each instrument distinct yet blended with the whole. It was as delightful as fine wine.

The quintet — Susan McGinn (flute), J. Scott Janusch (oboe), James Moffitt (clarinet), Marsha Schweitzer (bassoon), and Jonathan Parrish (French horn) — assembled an equally delightful program, with works spanning the 18th to 20th centuries.

Arvo Part's short, witty "Quintettino" elicited laughter and left the audience wondering whether the composer was crazy or just pulling their legs. And the final work, Maslanka's little-known "Quintet for Winds," turned out to be a real treasure, with a fabulous first movement that would have been nice to hear encored.

The music alone was wonderful, but there was more, including a short video about the group's Norway tour and a ballet to Barber's "Summer Music."

Hawai'i's new Onium Ballet Project, with dancers Tiffanie Ferrer, Adi Inclan, Julia Moran, Andrew Sakaguchi and Mali Yamamoto, captured the music's playfulness and rhythmic excitement through Artistic Director Minou Lallemand's choreography. Lallemand, clearly a gifted choreographer, wove modern movements into a ballet tapestry, interacting with the music in sensitive, elegant ways.

Monday's performance was dedicated to two musicians who passed away in August: Robert J. Kopsala, the French hornist who helped found the Spring Wind Quintet in 1974, and Lars Kristian Brynhildsen, the clarinetist with the Bergen Wind Quintet, the group that collaborated with the Spring Wind Quintet and invited them to tour Norway.

In memoriam, the quintet played a genteel new arrangement by Schweitzer of Puccini's "Chrisantemi."