The English music historian
and critic Charles Burney referred to
Biber as late as 1789 thus: "Of all
the violin players of the last century
Biber seems to have been the best, and
his solos are the most difficult and
most fanciful of any music I have seen
of the same period".
Biber was a celebrity,
not only in his own time, but also among
later generations of composers. In the
liner notes to the present recording
Goebel mentions a quartet by Telemann
which quotes a passage from one of the
Partias from this collection. He believes
that Johann Sebastian Bach must have
known at least some of Biber's music
as well.
Virtuosity is one of
the main characteristics of Biber. But
his famous 'Mystery Sonatas' are ample
evidence that his music delivers much
more than that. And so do the seven
Partias which comprise the collection
'Harmonia artificioso-ariosa', which
was published posthumously in 1712.
Many of the movements
here are highly dramatic. Good examples
are some of the praeludia. The prelude
is often a way to set the mood, and
to explore the key in which the piece
is written. The 'praeludia' of the Partias
VI and VII are both in two sections,
the first slow, the second fast, creating
a very strong and dramatic contrast
and working towards an exciting climax.
The same thing often happens in forms
like passacaglia (Partia V) and ciacona
(Partia III).
In particular the variations
which appear in all Partias, except
Partia IV, confront the listener with
a whole catalogue of playing techniques,
for example long slurs of demisemiquavers
which are to be played staccato (Partia
VI).
This sixth Partia is
the only 'conventional' one as far as
the tuning is concerned. In all other
Partias Biber makes use of the 'scordatura'
technique, which means that the strings
of the violin are tuned to notes appropriate
to the key of the piece. It seems this
technique finds its origin in the tuning
practices on the lyra viol in England
in the first half of the 17th century.
It is interesting to note that Biber
was a viol player himself, and that
English viol music was well known in
Austria in his time, perhaps partly
due to the presence of the English viol
player William Young in Innsbruck.
This collection is
also interesting in regard to instrumentation.
Partia IV is set for violin and viola,
which is rather uncommon: when violas
were used in the Austro-German region
it was mostly in a pair within a five-part
texture. The other Partia with an unconventional
instrumentation is the seventh, which
is for two viole d'amore.
Reinhard Goebel has
been fascinated with Biber's music during
his whole life. For a long time he has
struggled to get a grip on these particular
pieces. He recorded the 'Mystery Sonatas'
in 1990, but only in 2004, the tercentenary
of Biber's death, did he record these
Partias. As he writes in the booklet
it is essential to have two violinists
who are technically at the same level,
as both violin parts are absolutely
equal. In Stephan Schardt he has a player
at his side who is his equal in every
respect. Listening to this disc it is
impossible to tell them apart. It is
disappointing that only in the last
Partia the basso continuo is played
by the harpsichord only, although Goebel
admits that "whereas it is now usual
to employ double continuo in 18th-century
music, this doubling is by no means
historically justified". I must say
that I strongly prefer the performance
with a harpsichord only, without an
additional cello. I sometimes find the
cello here a little obtrusive, and the
use of vibrato by the cellist is at
times a little too extensive.
On the whole these
performances do full justice to both
the virtuosic and the dramatic character
of the music. Often the performance
is outright exciting. The quite improvisatory
character of the 'praeludia' is very
well realised and the players are fully
aware of the contrasts in tempo and
dynamics, as one can hear in the 'Sonatae'
which open the Partias I and IV, and
which both contain a sequence of slow-fast-slow.
One could argue, though, that this performance
is perhaps a little too ponderous. In
particular in the 'balletti' (Partias
II and V) I would have liked to hear
a little relaxation. But this is a feature
of Musica Antiqua Köln's style
of playing: very serious and profound.
For music from this period and this
region this seems to me to be the right
approach, but in this recording it is
exaggerated sometimes. More breathing
space here and there would have been
appropriate.
That said, this recording
is an outstanding achievement, which
I strongly recommend. It will be very
difficult to find a performance which
better and more convincingly explores
the content of these brilliant compositions.
Johan van Veen