Audiences will have a chance to hear some neglected gems as the DaPonte String Quartet presents works by Shostakovich, Walton, and Dvorak for their second winter concert series Dec. 5-8 in Damariscotta, Portland and Topsham.

William Walton’s “String Quartet No. 2 in A” has been described as an “unjustly neglected masterpiece.” The British composer wrote only three pieces of chamber music, and these works may have been overlooked because Walton is best known for his orchestral work and film scores. Yet his biographers agree that this quartet, a post-Romantic and postwar work of languid beauty, is one of his very best.

Antonin Dvorak’s unaccountably neglected “String Quartet in D Minor Op. 34”is filled with flowing melodies, rich harmonies and pulsing rhythms that only Dvorak could have penned. It is notable as being first mature chamber work in which Bohemian folk melodies were consciously employed.

As for Shostakovich, he kept his “String Quartet No. 4 in D Major, Op. 83”in a drawer until Stalin was safely dead. The Russian composer was a vociferous opponent of anti-Semitism, which was resurgent in Russia when he wrote the quartet. Shostakovich must have felt it wasn’t safe to unveil the quartet, with its obvious Jewish influences, in Stalin’s Russia.

The DaPonte, Maine’s premier string quartet, moved to Maine in 1992 on a rural arts grant from Chamber Music America and the National Endowment for the Arts. They perform over 40 concerts a year from Presque Isle to Ogunquit.

Performances are at 7:30 pm Dec. 5 in Thomaston at St John’s Church, 200 Main Street; Dec. 6 in Damariscotta at Lincoln Theater, 2 Theater St.; Dec. 7 in Portland at the Public Library, 5 Monument

Sq.; and a matinee at 3 pm in Topsham at the Mid- Coast Presbyterian Church, 84 Main St. Tickets are $20, and are available at www.DaPonte.org or 529- 4555.