Lyrica Chamber Music presents concert for piano four hands.

Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Spring” is famous for the near riot it caused at its premiere in Paris in 1913. But it received an earlier debut in a piano four hands version, played by the composer and Claude Debussy at a private party.

According to Phillip Huscher, program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one guest said: “We were dumbfounded by this hurricane which had come from the depths of the ages and which had taken life by the roots.”

Lyrica Chamber Music invites you to relive that private party at 3 p.m., Sunday, March 3, at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township when co-artistic director David Kaplan and Timo Andres play four-hand versions of “The Rite of Spring” as well as Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.

A reception with refreshments and an opportunity to meet the artists will take place after the concert.

The four-hand versions of these works should provide listeners with a different kind of insight into these works.

“The Stravinsky is so much about orchestral color that the piano version exposes more boldly the harmonic and rhythmic aspects of the score,” Kaplan said. “For the Beethoven, the scale of the piece contrasts with the intimacy of the four-hand piano arrangement.”

He compared listening to these works on the piano to a black-and-white photograph, where composition and tonality are emphasized.

By playing this music on the piano, Kaplan and Andres are returning us to a past era.

“The piano version was very often the first one people would have encountered,” Kaplan said. “In the 19th century, more people would have gotten to know the Beethoven in their own living rooms, stumbling through the arrangement at the keyboard, than in a large concert hall; for the Stravinsky, the piano four hand version was played by Debussy and the composer himself for the head of the ballet company interested in presenting it, and the dancers would have rehearsed not with full orchestra, but with the piano. In other words, to play the works on the piano is in some sense to go to the source — to return to how people first experienced the pieces.”

Both pieces of music were completely original when they debuted. Can they still surprise the way they once did? Kaplan believes they can.

“I think both the Beethoven and the Stravinsky have their explosive moments, when the salve of familiarity is stripped away, and in that sense, hearing the works in the less familiar form can return the listener to that original state of shock and awe,” he said.

The Pastoral Symphony is an extended exercise in scene painting, putting an additional demand on the pianists.

“Playing the Beethoven on the piano requires extra imagination on the part of the pianists to attempt to render the contrasts in orchestration,” Kaplan said. “You definitely have to imagine distinct sounds and use your full resources to emulate them on the black and white spectrum of the keyboard.”

For two pairs of hands to play as one, it helps if a strong compatibility exists between the performers. Kaplan and Andres have been long-time friends and colleagues.

“Timo and I have played together since 2006 or 2007 when we were students at Yale, and roommates at the Tanglewood festival. I think we have influenced one another over the years, and I personally cherish the collaboration,” Kaplan said. “It is gratifying when you can develop a musical approach with someone over many years, so that a great deal of non-verbal, and even non visual communication can enter the creative process.

“I think both Timo and I share a deep sympathy with musical architecture and design. Both of us always seek to convey the longest line possible in a piece, while trying to remain aware of the potential for moment-to-moment drama and effect.”

Andres is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut, studied at the Yale School of Music, and lives in Brooklyn. A Nonesuch Records artist, he has received wide acclaim for an album of orchestral works, “Home Stretch,” and for his debut album, “Shy and Mighty.”

Notable works include “Everything Happens So Much” for the Boston Symphony with Andris Nelsons; “Strong Language,” a string quartet for the Takács Quartet, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the Shriver Hall Concert Series; “Steady Hand,” a two-piano concerto commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia which he premiered at the Barbican with Kaplan; and “The Blind Banister,” a piano concerto for Jonathan Biss and a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

As a pianist, Andres has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, the Britten Sinfonia, the Albany Symphony, New World Symphony and elsewhere; performed solo recitals for Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, San Francisco Performances, the Phillips Collection, (le) Poisson Rouge; and collaborated with Philip Glass, Jeffrey Kahane, Gabriel Kahane, Nadia Sirota, the Kronos Quartet, the Los Angeles Dance Project, John Adams and others.

As co-artistic director with cellist Ani Kalayjian, Kaplan is a frequent performer with Lyrica. He has been called “excellent and adventurous” by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire” at the keyboard.

He has appeared as soloist with the Britten Sinfonia at London’s Barbican Centre, at Miami’s Arscht Center with Itzhak Perlman, and in recital at the Ravinia Festival, Sarasota Opera House, Washington’s National Gallery, Music on Main in Vancouver and Strathmore in Baltimore. He has performed Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3 with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets for the concert are $30 ($25 for seniors). For more information about Lyrica Chamber Music, visit www.lyricachambermusic.org or call 973-309-1668.