It is always dangerous to have preconceptions about a concert you are about to hear.

This ‘First Wednesday’ concert given by a group of young string players from the Sinfonia Cymru began with music by Webern – one of the most provocative and controversial composers of the Twentieth century, best known for compositions full of discordant harmonies and atonality.

His Langsamer Satz (1905) for string quartet could not have been more different. It was effectively a love song full of soaring melody and yearning textures, much of it reminiscent of Mahler. It received a convincing performance.

However it was in the Schubert String Quintet in C major op.163 that followed that they truly excelled. This is a huge musical canvas requiring tremendous concentration and musicianship. The five players (superbly led by Caroline Pether) obviously loved this music and relished the challenge. They gave a memorable, often moving, account of the work written shortly before the composer’s early death ,aged 31.

The first movement alone lasts 20 minutes and is a typically Schubertian structure in which musical ideas are fully developed and the greater symphonic quality created by the addition of a second cello is fully exploited.

The hypnotic adagio with its duet for outer voices was the heart of the work . The third movement Scherzo was wonderfully committed and there was a bravura finale. A masterwork that received the performance it deserved.