Biber: The Rosary Sonatas [Import]

It seems as if it was only weeks ago when I had discovered Andrew Manze's earlier recording of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's "1681" Violin Sonatas, also on Harmonia Mundi (but rereleased on its "1 + 1" budget label). Actually, it was a full five months ago. And all I could manage to say, as a brief description in that earlier review, was "Wow! That's it. Just 'Wow!'." Moreover, I tried to rationalize reviewing that earlier release by stating that I would have loved to have run across Manze's take on the Rosary Sonatas, if only they had been available.

Well, it seems as if Providence has chosen to be good to me. Not long after reviewing the "1681" sonatas, prerelease information on Manze's Rosary Sonatas showed up here, and I ordered it on the spot. And then bit my nails for some weeks, awaiting, first, the release date, and, then, actually having the CDs in my hands.

Now I've got it. All's well that ends well. And, believe me, the wait was worth it; this is truly a remarkable performance of some amazing music, and it fully exceeds the anticipation that had built up in the months between reviewing that earlier Biber recording by Manze and receiving and listening to this one.

The Rosary Sonatas endeavor to capture, in music, the experience of the three great Mysteries of Christ: The Birth, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, in three settings of five "Mystery Sonatas" each (hence the fact that the Rosary Sonatas are also called the Mystery Sonatas). Despite the obvious tie-in with the narrative, this is hardly "program" music as we've come to understand it since the 19th century Romantic age; rather, it is a series of evocations expressing the range of emotional reactions to the sequence of events. And, while the instrumental combination of Baroque violin and (discreet) continuo provided alternately by organ and harpsichord hardly seems up to even that restricted challenge, one must make allowance for the fact that this is the work of Heinrich von Biber, perhaps the greatest violinist of all time. (Yes, now that I've heard both that earlier Biber album and this one as well, I am starting to become comfortable in placing him ahead of even Paganini!)

Biber was not merely a master of all "conventional" violinistic techniques (including simultaneous legato [bowing] and pizzicato, and multiple stops of incredible complexity); he recognized (and largely, if not solely, developed) the full coloristic possibilities of the instrument that could be obtained through the use of scordatura (the intentional mistuning of one or more strings). Each of the fifteen sonatas uses a different scordatura tuning, with no two of them duplicated, and it is this practice that is in large part responsible for the range of expressive (or, if you like, emotional) effects achieved over the course of the three Mysteries: the simple beauty of the Birth Mystery, the sorrowful mourning of the Crucifixion Mystery, and the glorious joy of the Resurrection Mystery. In the hands of Andrew Manze, all this is achieved with a single violin (but a gorgeous 1700 Amati instrument at that), with simple but effective continuo provided on organ and harpsichord by Richard Egarr.

Manze is simply incredible in this remarkable work, eliciting a range of timbres and effects from his instrument that defy ordinary logic. In each sonata, the instrument in his hands creates a different - and totally appropriate - effect. At times, it is even difficult to envision that one is listening to a violin, so perfectly does Manze realize Biber's intentions (realized largely due to scordatura) of breaking the bonds to which "ordinary" violin playing is bound. If Biber was the greatest violinist of his (or any) time, Manze must surely be the best current-day practitioner and realizer of Biber's intentions.

Two final thoughts, one on-topic and one somewhat off-topic: First, we do not lack for modern recordings of these sonatas. But I believe that Manze is truest to Biber's intention of making these sonatas the "personal" pieces that they are, by limiting the continuo to a single keyboard accompanist. I think this approach is vastly better than the more common approach of using a larger continuo group, thereby diluting the desired effect.

Second, Biber's music is so far-ranging in its achievement of violinistic possibilities that one should not be overly surprised to hear precursors of styles yet to come, years, decades and even centuries in the future. I was mildly surprised, in listening to both the melody and the double-stops that Manze plays in the initial sonata of "The Visitation" (track 4 on CD 1), that this particular track brought to mind Mark O'Connor's "Appalachia" style. Then, after giving it a second thought (and a second and third listen), I said, "Well, why not?" Why not indeed!

The two CDs, amounting to two hours and 20 minutes of music, are nicely filled and rounded out by inclusion of Biber's Passacaglia for Solo Violin and a brief final track in which Manze gives a few demonstrations of the effects possible with scordatura. The nicely descriptive booklet notes also go into depth on the scordatura matter, including the initial difficulties that musicians had in understanding and playing the works when the only-surviving manuscript was first discovered. It seems that the manuscript was complete, save for a missing title page that held the key to all of the scordatura tunings. Since the music is notated in tablature (more or less conventionally by notes that indicate finger positions), these finger positions only make sense - and the proper sounds - when the strings are correctly tuned. I suppose one could call the decoding of this manuscript an early example of "reverse engineering."

I have already bestowed my personal "best classical CD of 2004" award on this release. With, still, some 10 weeks to go before the year is out, the odds of this recording being knocked out of first place are truly miniscule.

Bob Zeidler

I doubted whether to buy this or Reinhard Goebel's version of the sonatas. Most reviewers praised this one highly, but one was giving it really bad press, which made me doubt. I haven't bought the other one, and therefore I can't really compare them (though i spent considerable time comparing the previews provided by amazon, i feel the restricted length of the segments and the mediocre quality of the sound don't allow me to speak of other versions), but I have to say this version is just amazing. Manze's performance, far from sounding "stiff and academic", as this minority review suggested, is one of an understated, minimalistic beauty. The sound quality of the recording is exceptional. And the choice to use just one instrument retuned for each sonata, as opposed to used many pre-tuned instruments, does give this version the edge as far as being musically and historically more correct to Biber's original intentions. The change of character in the violin's sound frome one sonata to the next is quite striking and gives depth and texture to the work.

As an aside, I would encourage all prospective buyers who are put off by Octavius' review, to disregard this negative propaganda. Checking his other reviews it seems obvious that this reviewer has some sort of personal agenda of hate towards Andrew Manze. He repeats negative review after negative review by cutting and pasting entire paragraphs avoiding even the effort to write each review from scratch; and probably without even listening to each recording as it seems rather far-fetched that anyone would buy so many records of an artist they disregard so much.

To conclude: if in doubt, preview all versions by yourselves, as they are quite different. I believe those of you who choose this one will not be dissapointed.

[In memory of Bob Zeidler who introduced me to this marvelous recording of this marvelous work, and who died April 2, 2005.]

My good friend and fellow Amazon reviewer Bob Zeidler put me onto this set months ago but it took me a while to take him up on his recommendation. I was a little skeptical, to be honest. One reason is that Zeidler is himself a violin player, and not only that he is an aficionado of 'fiddling' (I mean fiddling like in Scottish folk music, country, bluegrass and the like) and enthusiasm for that genre has somehow never developed for me. So, when he went on and on about how this fellow Manze was playing music by an 18th-century composer whose style in some ways presages 'fiddling' by almost two hundred years, I was not as interested as perhaps he had hoped. But I bit the bullet, bought the set, and was immediately charmed and moved by not only the music but the astounding performance by Andrew Manze. My goodness! This is seriously good stuff here. I guess you could say that my endorsement is for the non-Baroque specialist, the non-violin music aficionado. I adore lots of Baroque instrumental music, including Bach's solo violin partitas and sonatas and the like. But Zeidler is right, there is little about this music that sounds like any of that. It is from its own world, and a weirdly seductive world it is. Please read his review for in-depth details about the music itself, the use of scordatura, the general form of this set of Sonatas, and so on. In fact, if you haven't already read his review, stop reading this one and go read his, because his is the one that has real meat in it. My comments, on the other hand, are simply a long way of saying 'Wow!' I know Amazon is not particularly fond of reviews that simply say, 'Wow!' but in this case it needs to be said.

As to Manze's technique, have no fear, this guy could play anything. He makes the Baroque violin--in his case a c. 1700 violin labeled Amati--stand up and do tricks. His intonation, including extraordinarily tricky double-stops and arpeggios, is unerring. It is beyond me, frankly, how anyone plays with scordatura tunings, but one would never know that's what he's doing until you realize he's playing notes that simply wouldn't be playable with ordinary tuning. Further, he brings out the emotion in these extremely emotional works. As for his accompanist, Richard Egarr, who plays both harpsichord and organ alternately, I can say, as a keyboard player myself, that he contributes mightily, but sensitively and unobtrusively (as the composer obviously directed) to the whole, a feat that is harder than it may sound.

Wow! If you don't believe me, go listen to some of the sample tracks Amazon has so graciously provided! Go listen, for instance, to Track 4 on CD 1. It'll knock your socks off.

Scott Morrison