With premieres, you never know what you’re going to hear, and you never know whether you’ll ever get to hear it again.

Takeo Kudo’s new work, "Three Edward Lear Settings," performed last week at Paliku Theatre as the season opener for Chamber Music Hawaii, is wonderful for all ages and should be performed widely. But just in case, make sure you hear Monday’s repeat performance at the Hono­lulu Museum of Art’s Doris Duke Theatre.

The world premiere at Paliku began quietly enough with Carlos Chávez’s "Soli I," a pleasant work that exemplifies the "neoclassical" style popular when it was composed in 1933: clean form, nicely balanced, with four distinct voices.

That was followed by Anthony Plog’s more lively "Four Miniatures for Viola and Wind Quintet," composed for Chamber Music Hawaii violist Ethan Pernela’s teacher, James Dunham.

The contrasting pieces displayed the finest ensemble and balance, especially in the integration of parts in the "Toccata," the silky-smooth chords of the "Chorale" and the scurrying entries and responses of the final movement. Pernela’s playing was delightful, nicely paired as partner and soloist with the wind quintet.

When the audience returned from intermission, it was clear something unusual was coming, because the stage had been rearranged into a distinctly un-chamber music-like array: chairs and stands pushed to one side, microphone stands on the other, and a sturdy lectern.

Into that quiet expectation trooped the performers: conductor Stuart Chafetz, the popular timpanist once of the Hono­lulu Symphony; narrator Michael Titterton of Hawaii Public Radio; the HPR "speaking choir" of familiar radio personalities (Beth-Ann Kozlovich, Judy Neale, Gwen Palagi, Gene Schiller, Noe Tani­gawa and Chris Vandercook); and nine Chamber Music Hawaii musicians, including Pernela. Dancer Malia Yama­moto entered for the second piece, choreographed by Minou Lallemand.

Chamber Music Hawaii and Hawaii Public Radio joined forces for the concert to celebrate their 30th anniversaries last year by commissioning Kudo, emeritus professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, to write "Three Edward Lear Settings": "How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear," "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" and "The Dong with a Luminous Nose."

The eminently unique Edward Lear was a 19th-century artist, poet and painter of words whose fictional inventions — bong trees, runcible spoons, meloobious phrases — have captivated generations and slipped sideways into our language. (Be sure to read Kudo’s dedication to Titterton in the program.)

What Kudo produced are no mere settings of poems, but fully realized scenes, interweaving the words and music to create enchanting mini­stories.

There is, quite simply, no way to describe Kudo’s work except to say that it is delightful, imaginative, captivating, eclectic, silly, touching — in short, as Kudo described it, "wacky."

Narrator Titterton, himself something of a Lear-ish character, was hilarious, Yama­moto’s dancing expressive and Lallemand’s choreography lovely. Chafetz was vivacious as usual, the musicians terrific and the HPR chorus a hoot.

This first concert augurs the Chamber Music Hawaii season well: The composer and the performers did indeed capture Lear’s sentiment as "hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon."

Who knew 20th-century chamber music could be such fun?