The DaPonte String Quartet launches its 22nd season in Maine with a couple of firsts (Beethoven’s and Prokofiev’s first quartets) and an overlooked gem by William Walton. The concert will be performed four times, October 24-27 at venues in Thomaston, Damariscotta, Portland and Topsham.

Beethoven wrote his D Major quartet (Op. 18 no. 3), described as an “exuberant romp,” when he was still in his twenties. Bright, lyrical and humorous, it is heavily influenced by Haydn and Mozart and features a blazingly fast, witty and ingenious finale.

Prokofiev, in turn, was heavily influenced by Beethoven (though writing 130 years later) when he composed the String Quartet No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 50. The Russian was commissioned by the American Library of Congress to write the quartet, and he immersed himself in Beethoven to do it. (Later he would be criticized by the Communist Party for producing music polluted by Western influences.)

This unusually melodic quartet has several remarkable features, including a finale that is the slow movement, and the fact that it is written in a key that is actually a half tone below the range of the cello and viola.

William Walton’s String Quartet No. 2 in A has been described as an “unjustly neglected masterpiece.” The British composer wrote only three pieces of chamber music, and these works may have been overlooked because Walton is best known for his orchestral work and film scores. Yet his biographers agree that this quartet, a post-Romantic and post-War work of languid beauty, is one of his very best.

The DaPonte, Maine’s premier string quartet, moved to Maine in 1992 on a rural arts grant from Chamber Music America and the National Endowment for the Arts. They perform over 40 concerts a year from Presque Isle to Ogunquit.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. October 24 at St. John’s Church, 200 Main Street, Thomaston; October 25 at the Lincoln Theater, 2 Theater Street, Damariscotta.; Oct. 26 at the Public Library, 5 Monument Square, Portland; and the Mid-Coast Presbyterian Church, 84 Main Street, Topsham, at 3 p.m.

Tickets are $20 and are available at www.daponte.org or 207-529-4555.

For more information, call 207-781-5526.