Biber: Violin Sonatas from the Kremsier Archive

Heinrich Biber’s Mystery Sonatas may have brought the composer to the attention of academics, especially for their thoroughgoing and imaginative exploration of scordatura, but during the last decade, many musicians have begun exploring the sonatas of 1681 as well. Anton Steck’s collection begins on familiar ground, but soon disappears in the wilds of less frequently explored repertoire. But the less familiar sonatas, like the one in E Major and the Ciacona in D Major, feature the same exuberantly fleet figuration that sparkles through the Mysteries and the 1681 sonatas. And whether in the form of a chaconne or simply strung like beads on a string, dizzying and giddy variations play as prominent a role in the stray sonatas as in the more familiar sets. The variations embedded in the Sonata in E Major serve as an example of the kind of virtuosity in which the Germans indulged at roughly the same time that Corelli fashioned his apotheoses of first and third position. Monic