NO self-respecting fan of chamber music will ever miss a performance of Schubert's String Quintet, one of the mountain peaks of the repertory.

Sure enough, with the eloquent Moray Welsh as second cellist providing a further attraction, an overflow crowd was on hand.

It was treated to a carefully controlled, often intimate account that explored the foothills as thoroughly as the high sierras. In a first movement, where the ensemble resisted the temptation to invest too much emotional capital too early, the gentle cello duet in the second subject was especially alluring.

Welsh himself positively caressed his pizzicato accompaniment in the Adagio, while the rest of the voices shimmered. After its stormy centre, the rests were tantalisingly prolonged, leading at last into a delicate conversation between the top and bottom voices.

The light-hearted Scherzo came as a relief after so much intensity, though its Trio was a touch protracted. The Viennese qualities of the closing rondo may have been understated, but this was absolutely in keeping with the rest of this absorbing travelogue, in which the views from the heights were glorious.

Purcell's Chacony responded well to springy treatment, its taut rhythms allied to beautiful shading. Shostakovich's Thirteenth Quartet, which the Fitzwilliam premiered on this side of the Iron Curtain in 1972, felt freshly minted.

The voices were superbly balanced throughout, and the muted serenity just before the closing pages was its true climax. But the Schubert was sublime.

Updated: 12:12 Friday, February 04, 2005