Alice Tully wasn’t just a multimillionaire who bought the naming rights to a major New York venue, but rather a trained opera singer and confidante of contemporary composers. When Olivier Messiaen wrote his “From the Canyons to the Stars” on Ms. Tully’s commission as a prelude to the American bicentennial celebrations, he consulted with her to determine how many instruments could fill her hall with as much sound as possible. Now that the hall is about to undergo extensive renovation, Lincoln Center’s management gave one last going away party Monday evening under the rubric “Goodnight Alice,” and created a new way for the audience to disrupt the proceedings.

Since the wrecking ball was scheduled for the very next day, patrons were allowed to bring their food and drink into the auditorium. As a result, this evening we had the obbligato of one clink for a dropped glass and several for a kicked one, as people felt free to roam about at will. Except for a brief montage by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the night, hosted by Tom Brokaw, was all about the music.

It would have been relatively easy for conductor David Robertson to program light fare and take the Juilliard Orchestra through some superficial performances, but instead he challenged his audience with powerful music, including Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques for piano and winds. The students played brilliantly and precisely, and soloist Eric Huebner reminded of the days when the composer’s wife, Yvonne Loriod, used to take the piano part.

Mr. Robertson opened with the Prologue from Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” and the orchestra responded with a very crisp reading. Video showed the old neighborhood in which Lincoln Center now stands, when the vacant tenements and SROs served as a backdrop for the ballet sequences in the now classic movie.

Next, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center offered the first movement of the Mendelssohn Octet. They brought the A team, including Fred Sherry and Paul Neubauer, and produced a delicate rendition. Juilliard was also featured in a movement of a Mozart Violin Concerto, the finale of the No. 5. Saeka Matsuyama was a flawless fiddler, but that old conservatory problem reared its ugly head; Ms. Matsuyama seemed totally focused on not making any mistakes rather than imbuing the music with spirit — in this case a requisite humor. Mr. Robertson did little to make this more of a communicative experience.

Advocates of contemporary music may be disappointed to learn that their representative this night was Philip Glass, who played the same figure ad nauseam on the piano. Mr. Glass has represented himself as a great composer for many years now, but, as far as I know, has no such pretenses about being a master of pianism. He soon began to hit wrong notes, spoiling whatever hypnotic quality there might have been in this “composition.” Perhaps he was just bored. The pop arena offered three performers. Broadway singer Kelli O’Hara may have had a pleasant voice, but it was impossible to evaluate her power as she had virtually swallowed her microphone. Pitch was often challenging for her in the song “Migratory V.”

Wynton Marsalis then fronted a tepid version of the old Charlie Barnet standard “Cherokee,” with the Juilliard strings sounding eerily like those of Mantovani. Mr. Marsalis was aware that he was playing for a fund-raiser, and, in his attempts not to offend, produced the most disappointing results of the evening.

And Laurie Anderson? A line from “Citizen Kane” seems appropriate: “Her singing, happily, is no concern of this department.”