Est 1923

Biber Rosary Sonatas

Mystery and mastery in gripping performances of Biber’s Sonatas

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber

Genre:

Chamber

Label: ABC Classics

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: ABC4766831

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 1 in D minor, "The Annunciation" Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 2 in A, "Mary's visit to Elizabeth" Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 3 in B minor, "The Nativity" Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 4 in D minor, "The Presentation of Jesus in th Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 5 in A, "The twelve-year-old Jesus in the temp Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 6 in C minor, "Christ's Agony in the Garden" Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 7 in F, "The Scourging of Jesus" Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: B flat: The Crowing with Thorns Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: A minor: The Carrying of the Cross Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 10 in G minor: The Crucifixion Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: G: The Resurrection Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: C: The Ascension Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: D Minor: The Descent of the Holy Ghost Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: D: The Assumption of the Virgin Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: C: The Coronation of the Virgin Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: Passacaglia in G minor Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Elizabeth Wallfisch, Violin
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Composer
Linda Kent, Harpsichord
Roseanne Hunt, Cello
Biber’s Rosary or Mystery Sonatas are based on a series of episodes in the life of the Virgin, used as topics for religious meditation. Biber rarely attempts to describe these events in his music but the violin itself goes through constant changes – after the first sonata, each subsequent one features a new scordatura or alteration to the violin’s normal tuning.

One longs to know how Biber performed the sonatas – one by one or as a set? If the latter, did he use several violins (Elizabeth Wallfisch employs three) or change the stringing in any way? I’d have liked to know more about the decisions behind this performance. Wallfisch and her colleagues opt for a low pitch, about a tone below the modern standard. This may not be historically correct but helps the violin to sound euphonious. However, if the effects of the scordatura are softened too much, the wide expressive range of the playing makes up for it. The imitations of trumpet and timpani in Sonata XII are startlingly vivid, and, at the end of Sonata XV, the neat staccato bowing accompanied only by pizzicato cello sounds like a heavenly vision evaporating into thin air.

In the extended variations of Sonatas IV and XIV and above all in the unaccompanied Passacaglia Biber added as a postlude, Wallfisch transmits a compelling sense of the overall design. I do find, however, that her rhetorical use of very short notes occasionally gives the music an inappropriately frivolous character. In Sonata XV there’s a beautiful cantabile quality that could, with advantage, have appeared more often. But make no mistake, it’s a gripping, consistently enthralling account of some great music.

Biber Rosary Sonatas

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 1 in D minor, "The Annunciation"

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 2 in A, "Mary's visit to Elizabeth"

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 3 in B minor, "The Nativity"

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 4 in D minor, "The Presentation of Jesus in th

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 5 in A, "The twelve-year-old Jesus in the temp

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 6 in C minor, "Christ's Agony in the Garden"

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 7 in F, "The Scourging of Jesus"

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: B flat: The Crowing with Thorns

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: A minor: The Carrying of the Cross

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: No. 10 in G minor: The Crucifixion

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: G: The Resurrection

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: C: The Ascension

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: D Minor: The Descent of the Holy Ghost

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: D: The Assumption of the Virgin

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: C: The Coronation of the Virgin

Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and Passacaglia, Movement: Passacaglia in G minor

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