For classical music, one of today’s big dilemmas is how to programme. Do you risk everything with edgy – even new – work? Or do you play safe? Will the Romantic standards bring in new audiences? Or will predictable programming turn off the aficionados who heard that work only last month somewhere else? Without offering up any answers, last night’s solid Omega Ensemble concert at City Recital Hall was reasonably well attended, but it has to be said that its two-part Schubertiad was the 19th-century equivalent of meat and two veg – decidedly tasty, but nevertheless a meal designed not to offend the unadventurous palate.

Having said that, what’s not to like about a succulent slice of Schubert’s Trout? Perhaps the perfect piece of chamber music, it’s a work that never seems to pall and equally rarely never outstays its welcome. Taking his theme from the fourth movement – a set of variations on his own Lied, Die Forelle – Schubert builds a series of complimentary movements featuring aquatic and piscatorial musical imagery. Melodic invention is high – there isn’t a movement you can’t hum along to – and the five movements are brilliantly weighted so that contrasting emotions can...