Biber: Mystery Sonatas

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Hirasaki darts across her instrument with gravitydefying lightness, her bow seeming to barely graze the strings. Yet her tone resonates wonderfully, and she also achieves a serenity and grace... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2023, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 9th Dec 2022
Catalogue No: PAS1088
Label: Passacaille
Length: 2 hours 9 minutes

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Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, C. 90 "The Annunciation": Praeludium - Aria and Variations - Finale

Work length6:07

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Johannes Loescher

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 2 in A Major, C. 91 "The Visitation": Sonata - Allemanda - Presto

Work length4:54

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, C. 92 "The Nativity": Sonata - Courente and Double - Adagio

Work length7:59

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 4 in D Minor, C. 93 "The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple": Ciacona

Work length7:48

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 5 in A Major, C. 94 "The Discovery in the Temple": Praeludium - Allemanda - Gigue - Sarabanda and Double

Work length6:54

$1.00

$1.40

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Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Johannes Loescher

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 6 in C Minor, C. 95 "Christ on the Mount of Olives": Lamento

Work length7:39

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Jan Freiheit

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 7 in F Major, C. 96 "The Scourging at the Pillar": Allamanda and Variatio - Sarabande and Variations

Work length7:48

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Jan Freiheit

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 8 in B-Flat Major, C. 97 "The Crown of Thorns": Sonata - Gigue and 2 Doubles

Work length6:19

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Jan Freiheit

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 9 in A Minor, C. 98 "The Carrying of the Cross": Sonata - Courente and 2 Doubles - Finale

Work length8:35

$1.50

$2.10

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Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 10 in G Minor, C. 99 "The Crucifixion": Praeludium - Aria and 5 Variations - Adagio

Work length10:06

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Jan Freiheit

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 11 in G Major, C. 100 "The Resurrection": Sonata - Surrexit Christus hodie - Adagio

Work length8:50

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Jan Freiheit

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 12 in C Major, C. 101 "The Ascension": Intrada - Aria tubicinum - Allamanda - Courente and Double

Work length7:10

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Johannes Loescher

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 13 in D Minor, C. 102 "The Descent of the Holy Ghost": Sonata - Gavotte - Gigue - Sarabanda

Work length7:21

$1.50

$2.10

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Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Jan Freiheit

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 14 in D Major, C. 103 "The Assumption of the Virgin": Grave - Adagio - Aria and Variations - Gigue

Work length9:46

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim, Johannes Loescher

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 15 in C Major, C. 104 "The Coronation of the Virgin": Sonata - Aria and Variations - Canzon - Sarabanda

Work length12:38

$2.00

$2.80

$3.50

Mayumi Hirasaki, Michael Freimuth, Christine Schornsheim

Biber: Rosary Sonata No. 16 in G Minor, C. 105 "Guardian Angel": Passacaglia (Adagio - Allegro - Adagio)

Work length9:45

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Mayumi Hirasaki

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Biber's Rosary Sonatas are without doubt among the most colourful and brilliantly virtuosic works in the entire Baroque violin literature. Their distinctive feature is the scordatura, a tuning of the violin strings individually prescribed for each sonata, which allows a more colourful differentiation of the musical characters.

For her meticulously prepared and well thought-out recording, scordatura specialist Mayumi Hirasaki has assembled a group of renowned specialists and thus presents one of the most remarkable recordings of this cycle, which never ceases to fascinate.

This form of the rosary has been in use in the Roman Catholic church for centuries as a type of Marian Psalter. It gradually became customary to add an attribute to the name of Jesus in the first part of the Hail Mary during the recitation of the rosary, linking it to one of the fifteen canonical mysteries of the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries that describe the birth and salvation of the Son of God and of his Mother.

The Salzburg court musician Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (16441704) composed, according to his preface, fifteen sonatas "to the honour of the fifteen holy mysteries" of the Rosary, dedicating these to his prince-archbishop Max Gandolph von Kuenburg in a manuscript decorated with small medallion-like copperplate engravings. Biber, a native of Bohemia, had gone to visit to the Tyrolean master violin maker Jacobus Stainer to purchase instruments in 1670, but failed to return to his then employer, Karl von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn, Bishop of Olomouc, who resided in Kremsier. Biber, who had presumably taken advantage of lessons for some time with Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, violinist to the Imperial court in Vienna, apparently preferred to take up a position at the Salzburg court.

The above manuscript, the only known source of the Mystery or Rosary Sonatas the prime reason that Biber is known to today's musicians accords with the structure of the chain of prayers. This cycle of sonatas was most probably known only to the Salzburg prince-archbishop and his chamber musicians during Biber's lifetime.

Reviews

February 2023

Hirasaki darts across her instrument with gravitydefying lightness, her bow seeming to barely graze the strings. Yet her tone resonates wonderfully, and she also achieves a serenity and grace in keeping with the Sonatas’ spiritual subject matter.

Offer,Biber: Mystery Sonatas

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