
Biber: Violin Sonatas / Steck, Rieger, Santana, Perl
Regular price
$18.99
Unit price
per
- CPO
- August 16, 2005
Heinrich Biber’s Mystery Sonatas may have brought the composer to the attention of academics, especially for their thoroughgoing and imaginative exploration of scordatura, but during the last decade, many musicians have begun exploring the sonatas of 1681 as well. Anton Steck’s collection begins on familiar ground, but soon disappears in the wilds of less frequently explored repertoire. But the less familiar sonatas, like the one in E Major and the Ciacona in D Major, feature the same exuberantly fleet figuration that sparkles through the Mysteries and the 1681 sonatas. And whether in the form of a chaconne or simply strung like beads on a string, dizzying and giddy variations play as prominent a role in the stray sonatas as in the more familiar sets. The variations embedded in the Sonata in E Major serve as an example of the kind of virtuosity in which the Germans indulged at roughly the same time that Corelli fashioned his apotheoses of first and third position. Monica Huggett has alluded, in notes to her recordings of the Mystery Sonatas , to the folk origins of Biber’s style of violin playing. And Anton Steck and his entire ensemble do very little to dim the ruddy glow of the works’ earthy inspiration. The booklet, and its notes by Bernhard Moosbauer, express doubts about the authorship of the Sonatas in G Minor and B Major, but their cast of technical characters, too, shows the familiar, Biber-like, faces of rushing figuration in détaché , pulverized into coruscating rapid note values and of droning basses. The first of these two works also incorporates a languorous chromaticism that colors the work almost beyond recognition. And scordatura appears here and there, sometimes, as in the Sonata in G Minor, requiring the violinist to retune the E string back to E during the performance. Nevertheless, these works hardly suggest the progressively tortured tunings and subsequent timbral chiaroscuro that characterize the Mystery Sonatas . Muffat’s Sonata, though one of the era’s celebrated masterworks, seems almost sedate, especially in its first movement, after Biber’s extended pyrotechnical display; yet the subtlety of Muffat’s contrapuntal second movement, and the seemingly more purposeful virtuosity (in times of greater ignorance—or, at least, less intimate familiarity—I used to compare Biber’s often jagged lines to Brownian motion), harmonic daring, and expressivity guarantee for the work, on the whole, just as strong an impact.
Steck and his ensemble make as much of the creative possibilities of the music as does Andrew Manze in similar repertoire, but the piquant timbres of Steck’s 1701 Alessandro Gagliano and a copy of Paganini’s Cannon by Tilman Muthesius sound titillating rather than merely eccentric or quizzical—they communicate in themselves rather than simply serve as means of communication. And Steck’s virtuosity (notable in the Ciacona) sounds so breathtaking at times as to remind listeners, as no mere biography could, that Biber himself had been a formidable virtuoso and, presumably, just as highly creative in his role as performer as he must have been as a composer. Of course, if the ensemble didn’t share Steck’s robust vision of Biber’s works, and if the engineers (at least in the CD format, which I auditioned) hadn’t preserved the bright tonal highlights showered by their thumping rhythmic verve, some of the collection’s appeal might have been lost. Strongly recommended to Biber aficionados for the rarity of the repertoire and, just as urgently, to general listeners, who can respond directly and immediately to the ensemble’s tangy advocacy.
FANFARE: Robert Maxham
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
Product Description:
-
Release Date: August 16, 2005
-
UPC: 761203712427
-
Catalog Number: 777124-2
-
Label: CPO
-
Number of Discs: 1
-
Composer: Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Georg Mu
-
Performer: Various