Artists of the CMS on the stage of Alice Tully Hall.

February 15 “Lovestruck: Inspired by Saint Valentine” Sotheby’s, NYC 212.875.5783 www.chambermusicsociety.org

In recent decades, chamber music — the most intimate and conversational of art forms — has acquired an unfair reputation as forbidding or arcane. But consider its name, from the Italian musica da camera: music meant to be performed at home, among friends, in contrast to musica da chiesa, the ceremonial music of the church.

Among the earliest chamber compositions were the madrigals of the 16th century, musical settings of love poems that were sung by small gatherings of sophisticated amateurs. Consider, too, the word “amateur”: from amatore or “lover,” originally an admiring term for those who sang and played out of love for music and not in pursuit of monetary gain.

Chamber music’s forms and styles have evolved over the centuries, and professional musicians have gained the honor they deserve. But chamber music’s intimacy and its association with love and passion have remained constant. To celebrate Valentine’s Day 2006, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS), one of the world’s premier organizations devoted to this enthralling repertory, offers “Lovestruck: Inspired by Saint Valentine.”

Sponsored by Opus, Contemporary Patrons of CMS, and Sotheby’s New Collectors, the gala evening brings together Tchaikovsky’s rapturous Souvenir de Florence sextet performed by CMS musicians, an exhibit of images by travel photographer extraordinaire Peter Guttman, decadent cuisine and a silent auction of luxury items.

“When you look at visual art, it’s so similar to music,” says pianist Wu Han. “There’s a reason so many artists, mathematicians and scientists really love music. The appreciation of proportions, colors, the construction of the music — it’s the same language. When we are solving problems of ensemble and balance onstage, it’s not so far from other genres.”

Wu Han and her husband, David Finckel, were named CMS artistic directors in 2004. Distinguished musicians in their own right — Finckel is cellist of the acclaimed Emerson String Quartet, and the two also perform as soloists and in duo — they are also dynamic and accomplished entrepreneurs. They are the founders and artistic directors of Music@Menlo, a Silicon Valley chamber music festival; the former artistic directors of MusicFest La Jolla; and the founders of ArtistLed, an Internet-based recording company that they run out of cheerily cluttered rooms down the hall from their Manhattan apartment.

Left to right: Marianna Olszewski and Bobette Cohn. Lise Powers and CMS executive director Norma Hurlburt. Jim and Stephanie Hunt.

Though 2006-07 will be the first full season that they program, Wu Han and Finckel have already put their mark on the Chamber Music Society, whose début concert in 1969 inaugurated Alice Tully Hall, the group’s intimate, acoustically warm home. In early 2005, the couple organized a private concert at painter Caio Fonseca’s loft. Surrounded by the artist’s bold, rhythmic, abstract works, CMS artists played Haydn, Bartók and Ravel, and Wu Han spoke about “the shared principles of thought and discipline that help make music and visual art great.”

“It was the best night I had in New York, ever,” recalls Opus founding member and fashion executive Lise Powers. “Every time I see Wu Han, it’s an education and an inspiration. It opens up my world to things I haven’t had the opportunity to experience.” According to CMS executive director Norma Hurlburt, “That night started a buzz and created a demand for more such events. It was a way of drawing in people who had a wider passion for the arts, and it proved to be precisely the right atmosphere.”

For Finckel and Wu Han, the evening was about “empowerment” — a notion they bring up frequently. Setting the relatively abstract art of chamber music alongside paintings and drawings “makes things click, makes lights go off” for listeners and creates “a comfortable space where they open up to new ideas.” At Music@Menlo, the couple created CD audio notes that were distributed in advance of concerts, a practice they plan to continue at CMS. “The audio notes come with the ticket,” Finckel says, “which sends an important message: As important as the ticket to get into the hall is the CD to empower you.” Wu Han adds, “The idea was born of our own experience — not as ‘experts’ in music, but in discovering music the way everyone does.”

Both see fostering new generations of artists and listeners as key to their mission. “It’s a universal language right now in our business: How can we get new audiences for our art?” says Wu Han. Marie Samuels, an Opus founding member with a young family, echoes these concerns. “I developed an interest in music with free violin lessons offered through the public school system. Now my daughter goes to a very expensive private school, and I don’t think they even have this kind of curriculum anymore.”

Samuels hosted a CMS concert at her home for parents and children. “It was a huge success. CMS wanted to do more outreach instead of only trying to attract people to come to Lincoln Center. But [the concert] makes you think: Wow! We’ve got to go there more often. Between the crossing over of the arts, the younger group of people, the parents of young children, we’re trying to start a movement.” She continues, “When people achieve a certain amount of success, it has always been the height of fabulousness to collect Old Masters paintings. But if you think about it, chamber music is the Old Masters, and it’s open to everybody.”

Opus founders Lise Powers, Justin Hays Green, Marie Samuels, Andrew Borrok and Lisa and Saar Banin. (Not shown: Michael Evans, Robert Deutsch and Bill Samuels.)

Concern for new generations drives Wu Han and Finckel on many different levels. The half-dozen Grammy Awards Finckel has won as a member of the Emerson Quartet sit unceremoniously on a table in their living room. Inside each gramophone horn lounges a tiny baby doll decked out in Kleenex couture designed by their daughter Lilian. The droll arrangement captures the couple’s combination of achievement, resourcefulness and lack of pretension, and also points to their sense of mission as leaders of CMS.

“The Chamber Music Society is completely different from any other musical organization in New York,” says Finckel, citing the need for chamber musicians to think and breathe as one, in repertoire that offers no place to hide. “It’s not possible to do justice to chamber music as a presenting organization, taking a group from here, a group from there. Working as a family of musicians is the essence of chamber music.”

CMS consists of a core of artist members — some 20 musicians in addition to Wu Han and Finckel, including former Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Joseph Silverstein and clarinetist David Shifrin; a larger group of distinguished guest artists; and CMS Two musicians, up-and-coming stars whose two-year residencies include performances at Lincoln Center and outreach work at public schools and during the Society’s popular family concerts. The apprentices contribute their own special fire to CMS performances.

“In every 2006-07 concert, there will be one or two youngsters onstage with us,” Wu Han reports zestfully. Finckel picks up her thoughts. “We see senior artists with their wisdom and experience making music with young people who are impetuous, brimming with virtuosity and excitement. Believe me, it’s important to our vitality to have that around us — just as it is important for the youngsters to hear us talk about our teachers, the composers we knew when we were growing up.” He leans forward, his words pouring out passionately. “A race of musicians that doesn’t believe in teaching is like a religious sect that doesn’t believe in procreation. There are not going to be any of them left, no matter how wonderful their beliefs or their work.”

Renewal and hope for the future will inform CMS programming under these dynamic leaders. 2006-07 brings three world premieres — by Leon Kirchner, Nicholas Maw and Bright Sheng — in concerts designed to make the sometimes-daunting experience of encountering new music both joyous and inviting. “We program not only the premiere piece but also a selection of other works leading up to it, so that audiences come to know the composers’ voices,” Wu Han says. The Chamber Music Society’s innovative public master classes will continue, too. “The audience was in shock at the detail required to produce those sounds. We saw a packed house and thought we have to do that again — master classes, working on music with new generations.”

Finckel looks forward to the musical centerpiece of “Lovestruck,” Tchaikovsky’s lush Souvenir de Florence, written after the composer visited Italy. “It’s a hybrid of cultures, like a Russian having a dream of the warm Italian sun. But even the slow movement has a little Russian nightmare in it, where you go back to the freezing cold!”

Both artists see the chamber music experience — surrendering to the innermost passions of giants like Corelli, Beethoven or Shostakovich — as a voyage. “You have to establish a trust so that your audience takes a journey with you,” Wu Han muses. “But a journey is always a risk — there is never a guarantee that you’re going to make the trip safely.”

Finckel offers a lively counterpoint to his wife’s views. “I’m going to contradict Wu Han. I don’t think it’s a dangerous journey. I think what we can do as presenters is to be the greatest musical travel agents in the world.” The couple dissolves in laughter at the thought of taking New Yorkers to rare and thrilling musical places.