Composers in the romantic period embraced the new capabilities of the violin and the piano, pushing both instruments to new heights. A concert by violinist Benjamin Beilman and pianist Steven Osborne Wednesday evening at the Library of Congress examined the range of possibilities in this repertoire. As heard in cogent comments from both performers, the program resulted from thoughtful consideration of themes like musical mentorship.

Beilman, heard in Washington last season as a replacement for Hilary Hahn with the Berlin Philharmonic, began with the subtle side of the musical spectrum. The Three Romances by Clara Schumann featured the young American violinist’s rich, liquid tone, supported in a seamless legato flexibility by Osborne. The Scottish pianist’s diaphanous touch helped create an intimate delicacy in the first of these pieces. A more playful mood enlivened the second, with some more powerful sounds in the third.

Clara, among her other roles, served as mentor and confidante of the younger Johannes Brahms. An equally elusive air of mystery hovered over the opening of his Violin Sonata No. 1, taken at a gentle version of the tempo marking. In the development section, Osborne began to let the full power of the Steinway emerge, making for some explosive moments. Beilman, who has a consummate control of intonation and volume in most cases, came up short only at the high extreme when increased volume pushed his tone shrill.

Likewise the double-stopped passages in the second movement, otherwise intense and beautiful, lacked some security. Some beeping sounds, perhaps from an errant hearing aid, and a cell phone ring likely did not help the musicians’ concentration. Subtlety again came to the fore in the opening of the third movement, but an overly careful approach to both the second and third movements dulled the overall impression of the music.

Two more miniatures, Lili Boulanger’s Deux Morceaux, played to the same strengths as the Schumann on the first half. Boulanger, dubbed by Beilman as “the musical granddaughter” of César Franck, whose music anchored the second half, worked in similar late romantic idioms. Beilman plied an old-school rhapsodic tone to the piece, immaculate and potent all the way up to the top of the E string, including a vibrantly glowing section with the mute on, so clear in the city’s best acoustic setting, Coolidge Auditorium.

Beilman spoke of the final work, Franck’s Violin Sonata, as having been the origin of this beautifully curated program, because of the violin he has been playing for the last four years. The hands of Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern once played this Guarneri del Gesù, made in 1740 and known as the “Ysaÿe.” As Beilman explained, the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, to whom Franck offered this celebrated sonata as a wedding present, gave the first private performance of the work on this legendary instrument.

Osborne’s tendency to withdraw in sound, even when Beilman had presented themes with great intensity, made the first movement underwhelming at times. Fortunately, buzzing energy prevailed in the dynamic second movement, with both musicians pressing ahead at full bore and challenging one another in terms of speed and volume. Beilman’s full-throated, husky tone on the G string rounded out some of the evening’s most forceful playing.

That energy again subsided for much of the third and fourth movements, until the closing section of the Finale. Both musicians opened up again in terms of sheer force, creating enough thrilling moments to bring the audience to their feet. The choice of encore, Debussy’s La plus que lente, underscored the appealing qualities of both musicians: watercolor delicacy and exquisite phrasing.

The Leonkoro Quartet plays music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bosmans on the celebrated set of Stradivari instruments 8 p.m. February 20. loc.gov

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