Lyrica Chamber Music concert

CHATHAM - Music that gives an audience a secret urge to jump up and whirl around in a wild gypsy dance isn’t often found in the piano quartet literature. Yet there it is in the last movement of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quartet in g minor.

Hear it when Lyrica Chamber Music presents a concert on Sunday, April 2, at 3 p.m., that will rise to Olympian heights but also explore elemental human emotions. Lyrica artistic director and pianist David Kaplan will be joined by violinist Francesca de Pasquale, violist William Frampton and cellist Christine Lamprea for music of Brahms, Mozart and Schubert at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, 240 Southern Blvd .

Brahms piano quartet was premiered in 1861 when Brahms was still a young man of 28. The last movement features several memorable themes, offering exuberance and pathos side by side.

“The three piano quartets each in their own way are real gems of the literature and monuments as well,” Kaplan said. “They’re very serious works. So it’s such a pleasure that the last movement of the g minor quartet lets off some steam and lets its hair down. It has all that gypsy and Hungarian influence which is necessary because the first three movements are brooding statements.”

According to Kaplan, the key signature is often an important clue to the character of Mozart’s music. Lyrica will play the E flat major quartet, the second of Mozart’s two piano quartets.

“The fact that it’s in E-flat major tells you so much about the emotional timbre of the work,” Kaplan said. “It’s extraordinarily noble, it evokes larger forms, it evokes a concerto form. So there is a suggestion you’re playing with larger forces than just four people.”

The three string players at Sunday’s concert will also play Schubert’s charming, early String Trio in B flat major, a work that he left incomplete. Kaplan said the music is reminiscent of a Mozart divertimento.

Kaplan and his three collaborators have never played as a piano quartet before, although they have all teamed up in various other combinations in the past. One thread links them all; they are alumni of the Perlman Music Program.

Founded by Toby Perlman in 1994 and featuring a faculty led by one of the world’s greatest violinists, Itzhak Perlman, the program provides support, instruction and mentoring to talented young musicians.

“We had the opportunity as 11-, 12-, 13-year-olds to get together to play music at a petty high level, and study with some of the most amazing teachers in the world,” Kaplan said. “And all in an environment that would not let us forget that we were children.”

All four of Sunday’s performers are grown up now with individual musical profiles, but they have that common background that allows for a unified artistic vision.

Violinist Francesca dePasquale comes from a long line of noted musicians, with eminent orchestra players on both her mother’s and father’s sides leading distinguished careers in the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. “Coming from a family of string players like that, she has a very refined concept of sound,” Kaplan said.

DePasquale has been described by critics as “scintillating” and is celebrated for her “rich, expressive playing.” A winner of the many prestigious prizes and competitions, she has performed with the Galesburg Symphony, the Peninsula Symphony and the Santa Cruz Symphony. She is also an avid chamber musician, and teaches on the faculty of the Rutgers University Mason Gross School of Music.

Cellist Christine Lamprea has an equally burnished sound. “She has a very vibrant musical personality and she has really distinguished herself among young cellists,” Kaplan said.

Lamprea was the first prize winner of the 2013 Sphinx Competition, and the Astral Artists Auditions in Philadelphia. As such, she has been presented with major orchestras worldwide, including the New Jersey Symphony and the Houston Symphony.

“William Frampton (violist) has played all over the world with some of the best musicians,” Kaplan said. “He’s performed with Midori. He’s been everywhere.”

Frampton has been praised by critics for his “impressive” performances (The New York Times) and “a glowing amber tone” (The Boston Globe). He has played more than 100 performances in Asia and North America with a string quartet led by Midori. He is the artistic director of Music at Bunker Hill, a chamber music series in Southern New Jersey he co-founded in 2008 that brings five professional chamber music performances to Gloucester County.

Lyrica currently celebrates its 30th season of bringing chamber music and artists of international stature to Morris County and adjoining areas.

“I think we do occupy a niche in presenting such high level concerts for such a small ticket price in the community,” Kaplan said.

Tickets for the concert are $20-$25. For more information about Lyrica Chamber Music, visit www.lyricachambermusic.org or call 973-309-1668.