String quartets are everywhere, but it is rare to encounter good wind music in chamber performance. So it was a treat to board Brooklyn's Bargemusic on Saturday evening and listen to a traditional wind quintet reconfigure itself into four different combinations of instruments. The group (Evgeny Faniuk, flute and piccolo, Erin Gustafson, oboe, Gilad Harel, clarinet, Erik Holtje, bassoon, and Alexander Gusev, French horn) emphasized a solid discipline and pinpoint note separation.

Gyorgy Ligeti fashioned his Six Bagatelles for Woodwind Quintet from sections of a previous piano composition of which the first movement consisted of only one note, the second, two, etc. The wind arrangement picks up the thread at four notes and builds from there. The style is Hungarian folk, the fifth movement, Adagio — Mesto, a memorial tribute to Bela Bartok. Ligeti was still finding his voice during the composition of this piece, and occasionally introduces extremely dissonant tones primarily for their shock value. The ensemble adapted just the right spirit for this rough-hewn work, the Presto ruvido proving especially lively.

Pianist Olga Vinokur replaced flutist Mr. Faniuk for the next item on the agenda, the beautiful Quintet for Piano and Winds of Mozart. This is one of those magically effervescent pieces that evokes the composer's roots as a boy genius. With Ms. Vinokur's precise execution as a solid underpinning, the players made this music smile. Its comforting, barcarolle-like Larghetto was the perfect accompaniment to this unique, gently rocking auditorium on the water.

Yuri Levitin is known in Russia primarily as a film composer, but also has composed pieces for the likes of Mstislav Rostropovich. His Suite for Woodwind Quartet has no horn part and, like the Ligeti, is steeped in folk element. Basically a Romantic work, it explores differing moods with a bucolic overlay. Clarinetist Mr. Harel was particularly expressive in the dance movement, evoking just the right sound of the village band musician.

What attracted me to this concert was the opportunity to hear my own personal favorite work in the entire wind repertoire, Francis Poulenc's Sextet for Piano and Woodwind Quintet in C Major. The work is amazingly uplifting, full of energy and indomitability. Poulenc was a fine composer who produced some of the most moving music of the last century, particularly his opera Dialogues of the Carmelites, but never again did he ascend to such a peak of expressivity as in this refulgent, multicolored essay.

The piece is rhythmically complex and difficult to coordinate in live performance, but this evening's artists were quite proficient. Adopting a challenging tempo, they dazzled with their limpidity and flexibility. Mr. Faniuk's flutter tonguing was richly hued and angelic while Ms. Vinokur's strong architectural sense held the group together. All was very well-phrased and tasteful.

In fact, it was perhaps a bit too tasteful. I wished for more drive from the de facto rhythm section of horn and bassoon and a little more raucousness from the winds as a whole. Overall, though, the musicians captured the piquant flavor quite well. And, since I am always picking on the poor horn players, let me conclude by stating that Mr. Gusev, with his devilishly difficult instrument, was remarkably accurate all night.

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