The Jasper String Quartet formed in 2003, when violist Sam Quintal, cellist Rachel Henderson Freivogel, and violinists J Freivogel and Sae Niwa were students at Oberlin Conservatory. They’re now quartet in residence at the graduate program of the Yale School of Music after winning a handful of chamber-music competitions in 2008 and 2009 and building programs that explore the evolution of the quartet form. They come to town tonight to illuminate the “Second Viennese School” with a program that starts with an early and conservative work by the high king of string quartets, Ludwig van Beethoven: opus 18, No. 1. Then they stray from the beaten path, first with a couple of turn-of-the-20th-century adventures by Anton Webern, who creates auditory vertigo by applying Schoenberg’s 12-tone approach to pitch, rhythm, dynamics and the way instruments relate to each other in “Langsamer Satz” and “5 Movements.” The final piece — Bedrich Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1, “From My Life” — returns to the melodic world, as the 19th-century Czech composer of patriotic tone poems attempts a musical autobiography, recreating scenes from his life in four movements. The Jasper Quartet performs as part of the Rocky River Chamber Music Society Series at 8 p.m. at the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church (20401 Hilliard Blvd., Rocky River, 440.333.2255). Admission is free. — Michael Gill
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