Lyrica Chamber Music presents the Tesla String Quartet

As composers reach old age, it might be reasonable to expect that their output and their inspiration might flag, or that their music might assume a reflective quality.

For its Lyrica Chamber Music concert at 3 p.m. on April 28 at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, the Tesla String Quartet has chosen music by three composers who were nearing the end of their lives, although one was still a young man. And these works prove that genius can flourish despite the ravages of disease and age.

They will play Beethoven’s final quartet, Op. 135, Schubert’s magnificent String Quintet, and the last quartet by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. For the Schubert, they will be joined by Lyrica’s co-artistic director, cellist Ani Kalayjian.

The quartet consists of violinists Ross Snyder and Michelle Lie, violist Edwin Kaplan (brother of Lyrica co-artistic director David Kaplan) and cellist Serafim Smigelskiy.

Tesla violinist Snyder resists the idea that composers’ music is defined by their age.

“Often the perception of autumnal profundity is ascribed to works by subsequent generations who are looking for ways to categorize or define the development or course of a composer's output throughout their life,” Snyder said. “While Schubert wrote his quintet in the last year of his life, he was still only 31 years old.”

Villa-Lobos was 70 years old when he completed his String Quartet No. 17, two years before his death.

“Villa-Lobos' final quartet is full of vitality and freshness, bearing no hint of a man contemplating the end of his life,” Snyder said. “Indeed, the relatively concise writing adds to the sense of youthfulness in the work. He wrote 17 quartets over the span of 42 years, and the 17th is clearly a continuation of Villa-Lobos' style as it had been developing over his lifetime.”

Op. 135 was Beethoven’s last completed composition. It followed four extraordinary quartets that are some of the most interesting and intellectually challenging works he ever wrote.

”While Op. 135 is the final work in the group of “Late Quartets,” it doesn’t necessarily represent the culmination of Beethoven’s style in a progressive sense,” Snyder said. “Each of the four previous quartets does get progressively larger, with each quartet adding an additional movement (Op. 127 has four, and Op. 131 has seven), but with Op. 135 Beethoven returns to the traditional four-movement scheme. In a way it’s more of a fresh beginning, as if he had reached a pinnacle in Op. 131 and now was setting out along a new path.

“The quartet does indeed bear the hallmarks of Beethoven’s late style: melodies broken up and divided among the four voices, phrases that either wander off or build to a climax that never quite arrives, and the pointed contrast between earthy vitality and sublime expressivity.

“The work on the whole is much lighter and more content than the other Late Quartets, and even though there is gravity in the finale, Beethoven is perhaps at his most playful, as the piece ends not with the pontifications of an old man, but the teasing song of a child.”

Schubert was an admirer of Beethoven, and was a pallbearer at the great composer’s funeral. Yet he went his own way during his short life, helping to usher in the romantic era in music.

His String Quintet is one of the cornerstones of the chamber repertoire, and is unusual in that it adds an extra cello to the string quartet instead of an extra viola.

“Schubert is a master of combining extreme emotions and touching sensitivity in his music,” Tesla cellist Smigelskiy said. “From the gentleness of the first movement to the heart breaking adagio of the second movement, from the bombastic scherzo to the earth-shattering finale, the composer lets us experience every mood imaginable. “

The use of the extra cello displays Schubert’s genius in blending instruments.

“Schubert’s intimate knowledge of string sonorities, masterfully making the second cello thicken and balance two violins, makes for a unique and brilliant sound world,” Smigelskiy said. “I remember being completely awestruck hearing this work for the first time. I knew I must perform it, and ever since I’ve cherished every opportunity I get to play this magnificent work.”

Villa-Lobos may be a new name to some. He is most famous for his series of orchestra works, the Bachianas Brasileiras, and his set of five piano concertos blends romanticism with Brazilian flavor.

In his youth he explored Brazil’s rain forest interior and told what may have been tall tales of narrow escapes from cannibals.

“In this last string quartet Villa-Lobos’ harmonies are often built on fourths, which is different from the classical traditional foundation of thirds and fifths,” Violinist Lie said. “There are also a lot of syncopated rhythmic patterns, depicting his time playing with street bands. If you haven't heard his music before, this might be an intriguing experience.”

The Schubert String Quintet will be Tesla’s first opportunity to collaborate with Kalayjian.

“We have played the Schubert quintet with other cellists,” said violist Kaplan. “It is always interesting to invite someone into the group for a familiar piece. We have the opportunity to try and see the music through their eyes. We also have the added challenge of finding the right blend of sound with the added voice. In any case we are looking forward to putting the quintet together.”

Praised for their “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play, regardless of era, style or technical demand” (The International Review of Music), the Tesla Quartet brings refinement and prowess to both new and established repertoire. Dubbed “technically superb” by The Strad, the Tesla Quartet recently took Second Prize as well as the Haydn Prize and Canadian Commission Prize at the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition.

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “representing the young, up-and-coming generation,” and a “superb cellist with a large, expressive, singing tone, passionate musicianship, and magnificent playing” by the Journal Tribune, Armenian-American cellist Kalayjian enjoys a prolific career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and educator that has taken her to Japan, Australia, Canada, the Middle East, and throughout Europe and the United States.

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.