EARLY MUSIC CONCERTS : 2 CONCERTS TO BRING S.D. SOUND OF EARLY MUSIC

Over the last decade, the performance of early music has come of age, according to Barthold Kuijken, leader of the Kuijken Quartet.

“Like some political groups that were once on the fringe--like the Green Party--early music is now accepted in normal circles,” Kuijken said. “It has finally overcome its marginal importance in the music world, where it was an in-group activity relegated to aesthetes and early-music lovers.”

As a sign of the increased interest in early music in San Diego, where it has not quite reached the musical mainstream, two concerts featuring noted European performers will take place this weekend. Kuijken’s celebrated quartet from Belgium, with Kuijken playing the Baroque flute, will perform Friday night at the Versailles Room of the Westgate Hotel downtown.

Sunday afternoon, the duo Elizondo-Brauchli will give a recital of 18th-Century music for harpsichord and organ at All Souls Episcopal Church in Point Loma. Esteban Elizondo, organist and professor at Spain’s San Sebastian Conservatory, will be joined by Bernard Brauchli of the New England Conservatory of Music in a program of music composed for two keyboards. In addition to Antonio Soler’s Concerto No. 6 in D Major, they will play works by J.C. Bach and less familiar Spanish composers Josef Blonco and Francisco de Olivares.

The Kuijken Quartet, which has played together since 1972, has been called “both the state of the art and the creme de la creme” of early music ensembles. It is composed of the three Kuijken brothers and harpsichordist Robert Kohnen.

Wieland Kuijken, the eldest brother, began his career as a cellist. He soon turned his interest to the viola da gamba, an instrument similar to the cello that did not survive the Baroque era. It was, however, one of the most popular chamber instruments of that time.

Sigiswald Kuijken made his musical mark playing the Baroque violin, while 38-year-old Barthold Kuijken, the youngest musician in the family, specialized on the single-keyed, wooden Baroque flute. When Barthold makes recordings or performs near his home, outside Brussels, he plays a prized 1745 boxwood flute. On tour, however, he uses one of the two exact copies of it that he has commissioned.

“I bring one of the copies to avoid the risks of travel and fluctuating climatic conditions, which would be harmful to the 18th-Century instrument,” he said. “The copies are very good.”

Like many other early music ensembles, the Kuijken Quartet plays at a pitch one-half step below modern pitch standards.

While Barthold has spent time digging through European libraries in search of additional Baroque repertory for the quartet, he has unearthed no grand discoveries.

“There is no lost ‘B Minor Mass’ hiding out there,” he said. “You’re lucky if you find one worthwhile piece out of a hundred. I have rediscovered the musical value of some composers I had underestimated while digging, however, such as the French composer Jean-Marie Leclair.

“It’s valuable going through all of the uninteresting music just to get a feel for the musical standards of the time.”

Along with Dutch harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt and virtuoso recorder player Frans Brueggen, the Kuijkens are part of the Low Countries’ thriving and celebrated early music community.

“This concentration of performers is partially coincidental,” Barthold Kuijken said, “but it also has to do with the melting pot quality--a certain chameleon character--of the area. We are a mix of of many cultures: German, French, as well as Anglo-Saxon. I guess we have a certain versatility that has been fertile ground for early music.”

The San Diego Flute Guild, which, along with the San Diego Early Music Society, is sponsoring the quartet’s performance, chose the Westgate’s Versailles Room because of its French Baroque decor and its intimacy. According to Flute Guild member Lynn Schubert, the room will seat 300 people.

The quartet’s program will include a Sonata by Jean-Marie Leclair, the Second “Paris” Quartet of Telemann and J.S. Bach’s G Major Trio Sonata.