By Nestor CASTIGLIONE

European civilization by 1913 was a society of masks. The veneer of public gentility was crumbling irrevocably in the years since the turn of the century. The music of the era – the lingua franca of post-Wagnerian sumptuousness, which at its periphery was being nipped at by the new grammar of modernism – vividly reflected the contradictory impulses that only a year later would tear the continent apart in bloody strife. Into that world arrived the work by which Igor Stravinsky would earn household fame as modernist icon. But before Pierre Monteux’s baton gestured the upbeat on what would become the most notorious premiere in the annals of 20th century music, the composer first birthed the sounds of “The Rite of Spring” in a piano duet run-through with fellow composer Claude Debussy sharing the bench.

“To have been a fly on the wall at that moment,” mused composer Frederick Lesemann. “Did Debussy know that the foundations of 20th century were being laid down right then? Did he hear it as an extension of his own explorations? He must have been startled by this music.”

The native and lifelong resident of La Crescenta talked about Stravinsky’s ballet in a phone interview earlier this week. The score will be the centerpiece in a Piano Spheres program next week of two-piano music, which will include works by Darius Milhaud and Lesemann himself. The performers are his wife Susan Svrček and Nelson Ojeda Valdés.

Hearing “The Rite of Spring” played on two pianos has the effect of distilling the music to its essentials, with facets obscured by the lavish orchestral coloring emerging in clear black and white on the keyboard.

“Like all his music, Stravinsky composed this score on the piano,” Lesemann said. “The harmonic colors, the way certain chords sit [in the hands of a pianist] all point to that quality.”

He explained that Svrček and Nelson Ojeda Valdés chose to play a version of the score in a two piano arrangement, instead of the composer’s own for piano four-hands. The latter version, in Lesemann’s opinion, makes for a “tricky bit of keyboard choreography for the performers.”

Closing the program is his own “barcode (dance music for two pianos),” a work he composed for his wife and Nelson Ojeda Valdés.

“It was an informal commission,” he said. “I had imagined that the piece would probably be included on a program with the Stravinsky. So it has a lot of rhythmic drive.”

Though he composed the score on a computer and could hear what he set down in playback, he also said that being married to Svrček allows him the advantage of hearing how not only something sounds, but also how the performer’s fingers can manage the piece.

Lesemann praised his wife’s “phenomenal attention to detail and musicality.”

“She has a huge technique,” he continued. “She can make the piano whisper and roar.”

He then added, “I’m lucky that a pianist of her caliber lives in my household.”

Piano Spheres’ program of music by Milhaud, Stravinsky, and Lesemann will be performed at the REDCAT Theatre (631 W. 2nd St., Los Angeles, adjacent to Walt Disney Hall) on Tuesday, April 25 at 8:30 p.m. Parking is available in the Disney Hall garage. Tickets for the general public are $35, $20 for students and REDCAT members, and $12 for CalArts students, faculty and staff. To obtain tickets and more information, visit https://www.redcat.org/event/piano-spheres-presents-susan-svr-ek-spring or call (213) 237-2800.

  Nestor CASTIGLIONE