Mystery Sons

I own three versions of Biber's Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas, and a fourth recording (by Manze) of other Biber sonatas along with the famous passacaglia that concludes the set. All of the versions (the other two being by Rheinhard Goebel on Archiv and Suzanne Lautenbacher on VOX) are beautiful, because the music is. Perhaps the passacaglia is the most beautiful 8 to 12 minutes (depending on performer) in the entire musical library. I rate the Holloway version as the best in terms of the passacaglia. The pacing seems perfect (Goebel is fast and almost dancelike, Manze quite slow but with more flare) and is about the same as that of Lautenbacher, the latter being performed on a modern instrument with her usual good taste and limited vibrato. Certainly the Holloway version has the most delicious ending to the passacaglia, when the minor key resolves to a major that brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. The Goebel and Manze versions both have a decorative flourish on the final note that, while beautiful, detracts in my opinion from the simple beauty of the key resolution. How two reviewers could give this recording only a single star is beyond comprehension! Even if one grants that Moroney is not as "lively" a harpsichordist as the performers on the other versions, my response is, "So what?" Maybe if you're a harspichord fanatic you drop the ranking from five stars to four, but the work is overwhelmingly a violin piece with harpsichord ACCOMPANIMENT. To downgrade the ranking of the entire recording to one star completely ignores the fantastic beauty, technical perfection, and haunting introspection of Holloway's performance on the violin. Besides, it's not as if Moroney actually is "incompetent." The descrition I would use is "tastefully understated, recognizing that this is primarily a violin recording." In contrast to the fun Goebel version and the good but more yeoman (yeoperson?) Lautenbacher version, Mr. Holloway plays with greater sensitivity but still with plenty of guts (not referring to the strings here) when drama or a discordant double-stop are called for. Again, ALL of the versions I've heard are great, and I'm tempted to buy yet another, but I always recommend the Holloway to my friends.

If this leaves you wanting more Biber, then check out the recent reissue of two Biber discs performed by Manfredo Kraemer and the Rare Fruits Council on the two-for-one Tete label... outstanding! Both discs got great reviews in both Gramophone and Penguin, and one disc won the Diapaison D'Or. It's a can't-miss Biber best buy--not to mention one of the best Baroque recordings ever!

I'm not quite sure why these performers would qualify as "real" baroque players (it seems anybody making that distinction would like to revoke the membership cards of performers they might consider too "romantic"), but I would characterize Moroney as "real boring." He has nothing of the color and variety of Koopman's continuo, certainly nothing of the contrapuntal ingenuity of Hill's, and none of the fire of the youngest generation of continuo players trained on the Continent. In fact, his tepid chord-chord continuo playing lacks much melodic finesse and seems to this listener simply like a much watered-down version of Leonhardt's style. Not much variety of arpeggiation, no interesting passing-tone or other colorful dissonances to spice things up. Just bland, bland, bland.