Correction Appended

The marketers who run the music business insist that the best way to guarantee a full house is to offer works from the heart of the standard repertory. But on Saturday, in the third of its six concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guarneri String Quartet took a chance on works from the periphery of the canon, and its audience trusted the group's instincts: the hall was full, and stage seats framed the quartet.

That's not to say that the group let loose with wild-eyed (or even tame) modernism: the works -- Arriaga's Quartet No. 2, Dvorak's Terzetto (Op. 74) and the Grieg Quartet (Op. 27) -- were composed in the 19th century, the latest of them, the Dvorak, in 1887. But they are revived infrequently enough that they can sound comparatively fresh.

This was particularly true of Grieg's beautifully constructed G minor Quartet. Its lush melodies and mild chromaticism embrace the conventions of late Romanticism as it was practiced elsewhere in Europe, yet the fact that Grieg's vistas were quite different gives the music a novel coloration. In the second movement, the violin lines evoke the sound of the wind in the Norwegian countryside; even the closing Saltarello, a Mediterranean form, seems to bear the accent, if only fleetingly, of Norwegian folk melody.

A current of exoticism also runs through some of the works of Arriaga, a Spanish composer who worked in the first quarter of the 19th century, but the second of his three quartets keeps close to Viennese convention: its themes are shapely, its variations range widely, its fast movements are nimble and it could be mistaken for late Haydn. Dvorak's thumb print in the Terzetto for two violins and viola is unmistakable. Written for the composer to play with friends, it is a cheerful work with sprightly dialogues and appealingly transparent textures.

Apart from a few strident moments in the Arriaga, the Guarneri played these pieces with a warm, consistent tone, and in the spirit they demanded: with intensity and drive in the Grieg, a relaxed lightness in the Dvorak and a graceful sense of proportion in the Arriaga. The players did not keep to their usual roles: Arnold Steinhardt played first violin in the Arriaga and Dvorak and second in the Grieg, when John Dalley took the top line. In the Dvorak, Mr. Dalley played the viola, and the group's violist, Michael Tree, played second violin. The group's cellist is David Soyer.

Photo: John Dalley, left, Arnold Steinhardt, David Soyer and Michael Tree. (Toby Wales)