Critic’s Choice
Say “chamber music,” and most people think of stringed instruments. A piano. Maybe a flute or a clarinet now and then.
A few years back, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center threw caution to the winds and gave a concert without a violin or a cello in sight, only flutes, oboes, bassoons…an entire chamber music program for ensembles of wind instruments (and a piano now and then).
Thanks to canny piece selection and the superb skills of the CMS wind players, the kind of program typically heard only in university music departments scored a hit with New York concertgoers.
It didn’t exactly bring on the winds of change. But it was enough of a success that the organization is trying it again, with a new selection of tempting items by Reicha, Barber, Ligeti, Mozart, and Françaix—music once known mainly to wind players, now about to send a fresh breeze through Alice Tully Hall.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center performs works for wind ensemble by Reicha, Barber, Ligeti, Mozart, and Françaix 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Alice Tully Hall. chambermusicsociety.org; (212) 875-5788.
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