THE lure of the Fitzwilliam String Quartet returning to their stamping ground would alone have promised a full house for the British Music Society's promotion last night. But the extra attraction of clarinettist Lesley Schatzb-erger made it a certainty.

The programme centred on Vienna and points east. The first half was a fragrant pot pourri of frivolities. A Mozart fragment for clarinet quintet, K.516c in B flat, in a completion by Duncan Druce, made a fascinating opener: a jolly little tune he clearly could not get out of his head, so he repeated it several times in slightly altered clothing.

Glazunov's Rverie Orientale, though better known in its orchestral version, proved haunting enough as a quintet. Suk's Meditation on the Czech hymn St Vclav (Wenceslas) had a dustier feel. Dvork's five Bagatelles found Alan George downing his viola in favour of a keyboard (yes, electronic, in lieu of a suitable harmonium).

But these were mere appetisers to Brahms's Clarinet Quintet.

Though it boasts occasional rays of sunshine, a deep sadness permeates its B minor tonality. The quintet proved this splendidly. In the opening Allegro, for example, there was a sustained contrast between wistfulness and turbulence. Miss Schatzberger penetrated the bitter-sweetness of the Adagio's main melody, with passion held just below the surface until its eventual eruption.

The last variation in the finale was wonderfully nostalgic, Viennese to the core.

Updated: 10:47 Saturday, November 27, 2004