While period-instrument orchestras proliferate, the antiquarian string quartet remains a rarity. The only internationally active ensemble in the field is the London-based Salomon String Quartet, which made its Los Angeles debut at the Doheny Mansion on Friday under auspices of the Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary's College.
Composed of violinists Simon Standage and Micaela Comberti, violist Trevor Jones and cellist Jennifer Ward Clarke--principals of The English Concert and Academy of Ancient Music--the Salomon presented wonderfully alert, clarifying performances of three works which, when played on modern instruments, would never be heard on the same program, what with 18th-Century music inevitably accorded the lowly warm-up position.
