The opening concert of the 2002-2003 Swarthout Chamber Music series pulled a fascinating maneuver with conventional chamber music: It grabbed it firmly by its foundations and shook vigorously.

The result: performances by the Ying Quartet and Turtle Island String Quartet that were steeped in classical training, yet bent at the edges with whimsical variations that took the audience on a playful tour of classical, jazz, bluegrass, Indian and salsa traditions.

Each quartet stood strong on its own at Sunday’s Lied Center show. The Ying siblings opened with Maurice Ravel’s “Quartet in F major,” playing the complex piece with discipline, energy and feeling, often rising from their seats as the music escalated in intensity. They climbed and descended lines with crisp clarity. Violinist Timothy Ying glistened in the high registers of the first movement, and David Ying on cello showed his muscle with robust, meaty contributions in the third and fourth movements.

Then came a twist. Turtle Island took the stage and morphed classical into unconventional. They set the mood with Michael Brecker’s “Straphangin,'” which started in a concert hall, mellowed into a back-alley blues club, and, after a few electric guitar riffs á la violin, ended with a funk jam session.

The quartets joined forces to play original works by Turtle Island members. Their performance of violinist David Balakrishnan’s “Mara’s Garden of False Delights” was the world premiere of the piece. The collaborative portion of the concert also included an amusing battle-of-the-bands style face-off.

All told, the groundbreaking combination concert delivered the best of a handful of musical worlds and set an exciting tone for the rest of the chamber series.