Despite the demanding violin writing, Biber was not primarily known as a violinist; Kroměříž records describe him as playing 'violonbass and viola da gamba'.
Compositional Technique
The Sonata representativa, a work on this album, features the violin imitating different animals, including birdcalls adapted from Athanasius Kircher's treatise Musurgia universalis.
Compositional Technique
Biber's 1681 Sonatas, unlike his earlier Rosary Sonatas, use scordatura (detuning the violin strings) as an occasional coloring rather than an all-encompassing technique.
Critical Reception
The technical difficulty of Biber's solos led Charles Burney, an 18th-century music historian, to call them 'the most difficult and the most fanciful of any music' he had encountered from that period.
Instruments
The harpsichord used in this recording is an Italian single manual harpsichord, made by Andrew Wooderson in 2007, modeled after Carlo Grimaldi's 1697 instrument.
Performer Biography
Rachel Podger, the violinist on this album, was the first woman to receive the prestigious Royal Academy of Music / Kohn Foundation Bach Prize in October 2015.
Composer's Artistic Vision
In his dedication, Biber described these sonatas as a kind of prayer for the longevity and good health of Archbishop Maximilian Gandolf, to whom the collection was dedicated.
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