'This had better be good." That was my ungracious thought as I arrived on a chilly, wet afternoon for the latest Oxford Chamber Music Society concert, which was packed to capacity, in spite of the weather.

No doubt the Carduccis picked their programme long ago, but they must have had a sixth sense about the dreary day outside: the largely cheerful music on offer was just the right antidote - somehow this was not the afternoon for heavy-end Beethoven or Shostakovich. Instead proceedings opened with Finzi's Five Bagatelles, opus 23. It's a pastoral work for quartet (originally piano) and clarinet, reflecting the atmosphere of rural England in an age before birdsong had to compete with the roar of modern traffic - although the countryside did sound as if it was already quite fast moving in the exhilarating opening Prelude. BBC Young Musicians Competition finalist Sarah Williamson, playing the clarinet part, emphasised that wistful, yet confident, sound which seems to come only from English composers.

More rural music next, this time Dvorak's Quartet in F major, The American. Written when Dvorak was visiting the small farming community of Spillville, Iowa, the work combines the feel of American and European folk tunes with the composer's yearning for his homeland. The Carduccis (Matthew Denton and Michelle Fleming, violins, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola, and Emma Denton, cello) brought out both the jolly and the heartfelt aspects of the piece - not forgetting that (we were pointedly told beforehand) the Finale reflects Dvorak's love of trains, and of drinking music critics under the table . . .

To end this most enjoyable concert, the well-matched Carducci players were rejoined by Sarah Williamson for Brahms' Clarinet Quintet. In a performance that overall perhaps emphasised the cheerful rather than the sombre emotions in the music, Williamson blended seamlessly in and out of the string writing - it sounded as if she had been a lifelong member of the Carducci team.