Performer: Philip Setzer

There was a palpable sense of communion during a performance bringing these great musicians together at Carnegie Hall for the first time. 

For the last concert of her Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, Renée Fleming assembled one of the least coherent concept programmes imaginable. Billed as “Vienna: Window to Modernity”, it was never clear what was specifically Viennese about the music on show, nor what was particularly modern, nor what windows had to do with anything.

The talent was top-shelf at Alice Tully Hall on Sunday evening, kicking off 2013 for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with a cello sonata by Brahms, and trios by Dvořák and Haydn. Emerson String Quartet violinist Philip Setzer joined co-artistic directors of the Society David Finckel on (cello) and Wu Han (piano).