Critic’s Choice
The Pacifica Quartet has been, pardon the expression, making waves on the chamber music scene for several years now, and clarinetist Jörg Widmann has joined a select club of world-class musicians (with names like Salonen and Adès) who are equally esteemed for their compositions as for their performances.
These two forces meet Tuesday night at the 92nd Street Y in a charmingly hall-of-mirrors program. Widmann the composer is, among other things, a sly and affectionate commentator on music of past eras, so what could make more sense than for the Pacifica to perform some of the latter—Haydn’s great, late Quartet in G major, Op. 76, No. 1—followed by Widmann’s backward-glancing String Quartet No. 3 (“Hunt Quartet”)? To top it off, Widmann changes hats to interpret, with his instrument, another past master in Brahms’s haunting Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115.
The Pacifica Quartet and clarinetist Jörg Widmann perform works of Haydn, Widmann, and Brahms 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the 92nd Street Y. 92y.org; 212-415-5500.
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