MUSIC lovers in Peebles will remember the performance the Arensky Ensemble gave at the Eastgate Theatre last year when they appeared as a piano trio led by s violinist Rowan Bell from the town.

The Ensemble is formed from the principal players of the innovative London-based Arensky Chamber Orchestra. A string quintet this time, the Ensemble returns to the Eastgate Theatre on Friday, October 23 at 7.30pm. They will play two pieces - works which are now regarded as monumental milestones in the history of chamber music.

Schubert's Quintet in C has been described as the pinnacle of all music; it is certainly one of the greatest compositions in chamber music. Scored for a standard string quartet with an extra cello, it is also one of the longest chamber compositions ever written. So many superlatives have been applied to this work: "glows with almost painful beauty"; "is purity itself"; "sublime"; "possessing bottomless pathos".

The Quintet was written just weeks before Schubert died and was not performed in public until 22 years after his death. He was sadly not to witness how his work would rise to veneration and popularity after it had been rediscovered.

The first half of the concert will feature a selection from J S Bach's magnum opus: The Art of Fugue. The work was written in open form and so could be arranged for various combinations of instruments, including string ensembles and keyboard. Angela Hewitt, renowned pianist, says of it: "Few pieces have such simultaneous intimacy and grandeur". In its string ensemble form the work is arguably at its best, with the individual contrapuntal lines each standing out from the others.