Outstanding violin music from Vienna

Aurora Germanica: music by Biber, Capricornus, Schmelzer, Krieger, Vilsmayr, Westhoff

I've spent a lifetime as a classical music lover on the lookout for the next obscure composer who's about to make it big. It happens occasionally: Florence Price is starting to get attention, which is very much deserved. Before that there was CPE Bach, Clara Schumann, Heinrich Biber, Carlo Gesualdo. The early Baroque is a good place to look, and this new disc on the Chateau de Versailles label has a number of composers that are new to me. One of them, the Bohemian Samuel Capricornus (1628-1675), has struck my fancy. 

Now Capricornus has his own Wikipedia page, with more than a few recordings listed, so this is on me for not recognizing his value before. On the evidence of the sonata from the second book of his Prothimia Suavissima played here, Capricornus is an imaginative composer who indeed could become as well known as his contemporary Heinrich Biber (1644-1704). Works by Capricornus can be found on albums by Chatham Baroque, Agave Baroque and the baroque string ensemble ACRONYM. There's even a group named Capricornus Ensemble Stuttgart. Pay attention, Dean!

Biber is the best-known name in the group on Aurora Germanica, a fine collection of music by composers closely connected with the court at Vienna. He was one of the composers who imported from Italy a new way of using the violin as a solo instrument. Virtuosity is an important part of the innovations of the German violin composers, but just as important are the expressive capabilities of the instrument, which in Biber's case can go beyond the purely musical, becoming transcendently spiritual.

Biber is joined here by one of his pupils, Johann Joseph Vilsmayr, whose Artificiosus Concentus pro Camera for solo violin points the way to J.S. Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin. This is a work that deserves to be played much more often, perhaps in a Bach concert to demonstrate how first steps can evolve into works of genius.

Otherwise we have music by Johann Paul von Westhoff, Johann Philipp Krieger and the much better-known Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. All of these works are played beautifully on a lovely sounding violin made by Christian Liebel in 1758 by Louise Ayrton. She has fine support from her continuo group: Salomé Gasselin, alto de viole; Lucie Chabard, harpsichord & organ; Sergio Bucheli, archlute & guitar; and Gauthier Broutin, cello. A highly recommended release!

The photo of Louise Ayrton on the album cover is by Hubert Caldaguès.

Here is the Samuel Capricornus sonata; isn't this wonderful? And lest you think of him as a One Hit Wonder, there's also a very fine Ciaconna from his Partiturbuch Ludwig. I love me a Chaconne! Enjoy!

Between sacred and profane

Heinrich Biber: Sonatae Tam Aris, quam Aulis servientes

The title of Heinrich Biber's sonatas from 1676 can be translated as "as much for the altar as for the table". The composer seemed to specialize in the overlap between the ecclesiastical and the courtly, religious and secular, sacred and profane. Blurring the lines between these spheres is evidence of Biber's own faith, but also a spirit of experimentation and innovation, and a firm belief that music is a central feature of life. A predilection towards theology turns to mysticism, coming to full flower in his Mystery Sonatas, also from 1676.

Biber was the Sir Paul McCartney of his day. In 1690 he was raised to nobility by Emperor Leopold I, with the title of Biber von Bibern. As with Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and Louis XIV a few decades later, it's encouraging to see great composers receiving sincere praise from monarchs; so often we hear stories of geniuses unappreciated in their lifetimes, their careers blighted by Philistine taste-makers and powerful people.

The Sonatae Tam Aris, quam Aulis servientes are made up of a mixture of styles: French dance suite and Italian sonata, differing orchestration, a variety of moods, and an alternation between virtuosity and contemplation. Trumpet fanfares are inserted in this version, calls that evoke the majesty of both the Church and the Monarchy and Nobility. This is an entire world-view contained in about 80 minutes of music.

This music is especially well served on disc. I've sampled the versions by Ars Antiqua Austria, from 2015; Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, from 2007; and the Purcell Quartet, from 1996. But my go-to disc for this music is the 1998 recording from The Rare Fruits Council under Manfredo Kraemer. That's not supplanted by this new version from Harmonie Universelle, but it can be difficult to replace a well-loved recording more than twenty years old. I was certainly impressed with the virtuosity and violin sound of the two soloists, Florian Deuter and Monica Waisman, as well as the ensemble playing of the musicians of Harmonie Universelle. We're lucky to have such a wealth of Biber interpretations!

This album will be released on January 20, 2023.

Hyper-dramatic spectacle, from a special place

Georg Muffat's only surviving sacred work is the Missa in Labore Requies for a huge complement of musicians: two choirs of voices and three of instruments, with basso continuo. This must have made a mighty noise and impressed everyone who heard it in Salzburg Cathedral. Unaccountably, this music has only been recently noticed; this is the third and by far the best of the versions that have been recorded. Johannes Strobl conducts the Cappella Murensis (24 singers), the Trompetenconsort Innsbruck (5 trumpets and timpani), and the 20 musicians of Les Cornets Noirs.

This is a really spectacular work; it has the hyper-dramatic spectacle of High Baroque French opera (Muffat may have studied with Lully), with the special oddness that Muffat and Biber bring to their music (an oddness I adore).  I heard the music in stereo only, though it really should be heard in Surround Sound, or even better, watched on Blu-ray or DVD, since the recording was made in a very special space: the beautiful Klosterkirche of the Benedictine Abbey Muri-Gries. However, a note in the booklet indicates that HD-Downloads are available from audite.de. The CD will be released on July 1, 2016.

Unfortunately there's no proper video up on the web showing these musicians at work in Muri. There is this story on Swiss Television that's agonizingly slow to load. Persevere, though, and you'll get a good feel for how Stobl arranges his singers and instrumentalists in this beautiful space. I'm assuming Audite will very soon post the Muffat video on YouTube with English subtitles, as they did with a previous recording of Gabrieli and Schütz in the same space, with the same musicians.


This is a well-filled disc at over 70 minutes. There are marvellous instrumental works by Bertali, Biber and Schmelzer to go with the Muffat Mass, which gives us a better idea of Muffat's musical environment as well as providing superb music from a special place.

Austrian violin music, with fireworks

The violinist Gunar Letzbor and Ars Antiqua Austria have come to the end of their 3-disc project to record all the music in Manuscript XIV 726 of the Minoritenkonvent in Vienna, and there's plenty of high quality violin sonatas left to make an entertaining, if low-key programme for the last CD, to be released May 27, 2016. Biber is the big name in this bunch, and his sonatas included here are the most substantial and serious works. The Forte Presto second movement of his F major sonata, no. 3, has a hair-raising beginning. Something is going on here: a battle scene, perhaps, or a storm. Maybe this is the Sturm before the Sturm und Drang. Biber is never conventional.

Though the violin part calls for an excellent musician, even a virtuoso at times (and Letzbor delivers on both scores), this music is about much more than the solo line. The continuo, provided by Ars Antiqua Austria's Eric Traxler (harpsichord or organ), Hubert Hoffmann (lute), Daniel Oman (colascione*), and Jan Krigovsky (violone), provide a varied sound that I suspect comes as much from the musical sensibilities of the group as it does from the scores from the monastery. This variety is welcome, though not as important once one comes to Biber's fireworks in the last part of the disc.

The first two discs in this excellent series, both highly recommended, are: Scordato, from 2015:

and Anonymous, from 2014:

* Yeah, I didn't know what a colascione was either. Also called a gallichon or a mandora, this is a bass lute.