I have posted this on the TTN thread but this is worth catching. We don’t often hear this work recorded live on R3 and I think this is a very fine performance.
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Last edited by doversoul1; 10-12-14, 10:03. -
This recording is available on SACD for those of you who are into that sort of thing. I don't recommend Amazon's prices, but here's the listing for those who want to do further searching. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosary-Sonat...ds=biber+sepec
Earlier this year I listened to quite a few recordings of the Rosary Sonatas upon realising I didn't own any. My eventual choice was this Sepec recording—tender and strongly characterised playing from all involved, deeply sensitive to the nuances of these unusual works, in gorgeous sound and on lovely instruments. Perhaps a bit more overtly 'programmatic' than they would have been played in the 1500s, but I don't see that as a downside in Biber, who loved those sorts of effects.
(The other version I found impressive was the pioneering, visionary, searching account of Eduard Melkus in 1967. It's less recommendable due to Melkus's continuous vibrato, more appropriate to the early 20th century than the 16th, but I do find his playing here on par with that of [say] Francescatti or Grumiaux... and unlike Sepec who focuses on the Mysteries as stories, this is a recording that brings across more of a sense of religiosity, as in the Bach Cantatas.)
Anyway yes, do listen to this. Has my seal of approval anyway. -
Many thanks for your thoughts. I very much liked this performance, too.
Presto Classical has it at more sensible price of £22 (2 CDs).
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I'm listening on i-player right now...brilliant performance, and how different from how we used to hear them as students in the 60s!Originally posted by doversoul View Post
In those days the Rosary sonatas were pretty much all that Biber was known for. Since then much of his church music, including fine polychoral masses, has been resurrected. Not being a string player I am not sure how players cope with the scordatura tunings. Are the notes still written at sounding pitch, or altered so that a player can still use the fingering he /she is used to? Maybe a player could post and let us know?Comment
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I heard Elizabeth Wallfisch play it live and she had three(?) violins, so that she retuned two and then adjusted and played on the third, giving the strings a bit of time to stretch. I assume the fingering would be the same???Originally posted by ardcarp View PostIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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The version of the score on imslp is from 1905, and that is written at sounding pitch.Originally posted by ardcarp View Post
... I would imagine that there are modern editions (like those of the Bach Fifth 'cello suite) in which the solo part is given on two staves, one with the part "transposed" so that the fingerings match those of orthodox tuning and the other (in smaller print) showing the resulting sounds.[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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That edition seems to be a hybrid of the old and new notations, if my experience of English scordatura in original notation is of any relevant bearing.Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
In Playford, Walsh etc. it is employed rarely and in specific tunes which imply a recurring (open string) drone on an a rather than a g. The tuning is indicated at the beginning by the preparatory dots (as shewn in the above edition) and then individual notes (on the bottom string only)** are printed one tone below pitch. The player therefore fingers as written, without making a second adjustment/transposition. [this presupposes that no early player would attempt the first four notes on the violin in anything other than first position] There is, IIRC, no example in English music of scordatura to increase the instruments range.
The Rosary sonatas are IM'UO the very peak of early modern abstract instrumental music.
later edit - coherence and concision appear unreconcilable: **i.e. the only scordatura string. I can think of no example in original printings which employ scordatura on any string other than the bottom. If any other string were mistuned, I imagine the above solution would also be applied to those.Comment
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My only recording of the Rosary Sonatas is Reinhard Goebel and M.A.K - I'd be grateful for views. I love Biber, my first recording (a discovery via CD Masters, if memory serves
) was John Holloway's Unam Ceylum disc, an amazing sound world, I've since added Romanesca's discs of sonatas.
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Another excellent version is that by Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr on Harmonia Mundi...it got great reviews when it came out. And you get a nice extra talk at the end of the CDs by Manze himself on the pieces and playing styles.Comment
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Biber was certainly aware of Italianate polychoral music, though I don't think there is evidence he ever visited Venice, Rome or other centres of influence. Missa Sancti Henrice is probably his most ambitious work for two choirs (ripieno and favoriti) strings and a 'choir' of six. trumpets, the bottom one being a bass trumpet (difficult to source!) I was lucky enough to give it [what is thought to be] its UK premiere in Sherborne Abbey about twenty years ago. Alas the only commercial recording available (I think) is a stodgy German and very dated one. I wish his music were better known and more frequently performed because it is (a) well-wrought and (b) impressive.Comment
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IMSLP also has a 'critical' edition (from Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich) which is written throughout at transposing pitch. The only place where a 'realisation' is provided is for Sonata XI, with the crossed strings*, and the realisation in the score is actually incorrect (a correct one is supplied with the violin part at the back). I imagine it's the one most performers prefer to use nowadays seeing as the 1905 edition also makes a wide variety of alterations to the scoreOriginally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
edit: Hmm, no. It is the 1959 'critical' edition you linked actually. (I've seen a different, earlier edition which more or less ignored the scordatura, thought that was what you were referring to.) The key signatures in the violin part should be enough of a giveaway as to actual vs. transposing pitch I think.
* Strings tuned d' - d - g - G. This is a nightmare for violinists, by the way. Don't try to write any new pieces with this tuning, once was enough.Comment
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Als well as the rosary sonatas, Manze has a CD of Biber's violin sonatas on Harmonia Mundi and I'd recommend them as well.
I have Elizabeth Wallfisch on CD for the Rosary Sonatas and enjoyed it as well, very well recorded.Comment
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John Holloway's recording is probably the very 'best available' IMV.Originally posted by hedgehog View PostComment
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Of course the Sonatas aren't a work which admit of a "best" performance, there are too many prominent factors which come down to personal preference on the part of the performers and listeners: not just playing style in general but choice of continuo instruments (and what they play), ornamentation, tempi (since these often aren't very specific), recording location and so on. The recording I listen to most is the one by Reinhard Goebel, but I wouldn't claim it's the "best".
The Missa Sancti Henrici isn't Biber's most ambitious church composition by any stretch - the Missa Alleluia and Missa Bruxellensis are somewhat larger in scoring and the Missa Salisburgensis is much larger, although the latter two were attributed to Orazio Benevoli until relatively recently.Comment
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The concert selection on TtN makes a nice complement to the studio Sepec SACDs of the full cycle (which I bought at the time of their release for far, far less than the current asking price). Have just ordered the Holloway (Used: Very Good) to add to the Goebel, Manze, Sepec and Bismuth. So true that no one recorded version can be justly called the best.Comment
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