Review: Cadenza NYC
Virtuoso Winds at CMS
By Brian Taylor November 17, 2024
Alice Tully Hall was filled to the brim on Sunday for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Virtuoso Winds, a jigsaw puzzle with six pieces. Six musicians combined in various duos, a trio, and eventually in a thrilling sextet, illuminating the simple joy, and powerful possibilities, of making music together.
Clarinetist David Shifrin, who has a long history with CMS, and Marc Goldberg, principal bassoonist of Orchestra of St. Luke’s, began the evening with a charming two movement duet attributed (somewhat dubiously) to Beethoven. Duo No. 3 in B-flat Major for Clarinet and Basson, WoO 27, if indeed Beethoven, is not the Beethoven of the “Kreutzer,” or “Appassionata” Sonatas. Yet his distinct mastery of form is evident: the first movement, Allegro sostenuto, has a middle section turns its gaze to an unexpected minor key, in an elevated moment of introspection; the second movement, a theme and variations, builds satisfyingly in cleverly constructed patterns.