Quartet in D Op 20 No 4 - Haydn

Quintet in E Op 13 No 5 - Boccherini

Quintet in C - Schubert

It was a complimentary remark overheard during the interval which best summarised Monday's concert by the Vogler Quartet with cellist Jan Vogler. "They sound like an orchestra," was the verdict offered. And, true enough, even with the acoustic of the President's Hall of the Law Society dried out by the presence of a full house, the tonal richness and sheer volume of the playing was one of the most striking characteristics of the evening.

This was, then, an occasion of demonstrative chamber musicmaking, as was made clear at the very opening. The triplet runs and arpeggios of the opening movement of Haydn's Op. 20 No. 4 fairly rocketed - an invitation proffered by the composer's Allegro di molto marking. But the Vogler ensemble - the second cellist, Jan Vogler, is a cousin of the Quartet's leader, Tim - didn't just heighten those elements of driven energy in the music. The soaring first cello lines in the Boccherini Quintet (the one with the famous Minuet) were handled with exquisite sensitivity by Stephan Forck, so that the lyrical fluidity which is among Boccherini's greatest achievements was achieved with apparently effortless grace.

The polarities explored in Schubert's great C major Quintet, from storm to calm, aggression to gentle intimacy, were extreme. If, at times, the playing seemed rather rougher than was called for, the moments of heart-breaking inwardness were captured with a conviction that more than compensated.