John Holloway won a Gramophone Award in 1991 for his probing performances of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas, and in this new recording of four sonatas from the Sonatae Violino Solo of 1681, plus two further unpublished sonatas, he shows himself in no less eloquent command of this composer’s very special musical language.

Virtuosic, experimental, meditative, Biber was a man who seems to have been able to say whatever he liked through the medium of his instrument, and Holloway has contributed as much as anyone to modern-day recognition of his status as one of the greatest of all violinist-composers.

In his notes he draws attention to the difference in character between the sonatas in normal tuning and those in which Biber asks for scordatura or altered tunings, citing the latter (Nos 4 and 6 from the published set) as ‘more intimate, more personal’. But actually this is the side which comes across most strongly in these performances anyway, at the expense of the extrovert maybe, but with no shortage of effective musical moments nevertheless; the point halfway through the Sixth Sonata when the violin re-emerges retuned and with a veiled new sound is managed with ghostly beauty.

With the violin resonating pleasingly through the many double and triple-stoppings, and Holloway’s bowing demonstrating a delicious lightness and freedom, these fundamentally inward, tonally aware performances also seem somehow to have more of the smell of the 17th century about them than their current rivals: Andrew Manze and Romanesca’s recording of the complete 1681 set, and Monica Huggett’s more recent accounts of Sonatas 3 and 7 (among others), both of which push the violin’s sound out a bit more. A respectfully resonant recording is a help here, as is the gentle but effectively unfussy continuo support of harpsichord and organ.

Anyone who already has the Manze and Huggett recordings (both worthy Gramophone Award winners themselves) need have no qualms about adding this one to their collection.