Musical Masterworks returns this weekend with a pair of concerts in Old Lyme that represent the heart of chamber music.

Series artistic director and cellist Edward Arron will be joined by pianist Adam Neiman, violinist Maria Bachmann and violist Hsin-Yun Huang for a program that features works by three of the most prolific greats of the 19th century - Schubert, Saint-Saëns and Dvorák - and a fourth work that is very much a throwback.

Once upon a time, to hear a composer perform his own music was commonplace, and Arron has invited Neiman to perform a work of his own, his 2013 Serenade for Violin and Piano, with violinist Bachmann.

"It was actually an anniversary gift to his wife, a romantic throwback to Wagner," says Arron, referring no doubt to Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll." A composer of symphonies and chamber works, Neiman is one third of Trio Solisti, one of the world's leading piano trios.

Also programmed is Schubert's "hidden treasure," his Adagio and Rondo Concertante in F Major for Piano Quartet, D. 487, and the popular Dvorák Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 87.

There's also a bit of a love affair between the four musicians and the Saint-Saëns Piano Quartet in B-flat Major that's scheduled. "The four of us recorded this Saint-Saëns and fell in love with it," Arron says.

- MILTON MOORE

Musical Masterworks, 3 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday, First Congregational Church, 2 Ferry Road, Old Lyme; $35, with $5 student tickets at the door; (860) 434-2252.