Album

There's a reason why art historians call the seventeenth and early eighteenth century the Baroque period: it's characterized by wildly imaginative, fantastically colored and extravagantly expressive art. In the art of German Baroque music of the later seventeenth century, there was no violinist more wild, fantastic, and extravagant than Heinrich Ignaz von Biber. A consummate virtuoso's music, Biber's violin works never completely fell into oblivion simply because consummate virtuosos kept it alive if only for its novelty value as an encore. In this 1987 recording by consummate virtuoso Reinhard Goebel, Biber's Mensa sonora comes tastefully to life while his Sonatina representativa comes vulgarly to life. Intended as table music to be played as an aural backdrop for a feast, the Mensa sonora is a delectable sequence of movements full of airy melodies, light harmonies, and effervescent rhythms that Goebel and the Musica Antiqua Köln dispatch with gusto. Intended as a depiction of various animals as an entertainment at a party, the Sonatina representiativa is, depending on your point of view, either a delightful or simply silly series of movements full of some of the rudest sounds ever to come out of a stringed instrument that Goebel fearlessly produces with panache all by himself. Archiv's early digital sound was crisp and clean in its time, and this reissue is just as clean and perhaps even crisper.

© James Leonard, All Music Guide

CD 1
Heinrich Franz von Biber Composer Mensa Sonora seu Musica Instrumentalis, suites for violin, 2 violas and continuo, C.69-74...Part 1 in D, C.69 Work 9:33 Musica Antiqua Köln Early Music Ensemble, Reinhard Goebel Ensemble Director
1	1.Sonata: Grave; Allegro	1:12			$0.49
2	2.Allamanda	2:27			$0.99
3	3.Courante	1:10			$0.49
4	4.Sarabanda	1:27			$0.49
5	5.Gavotte	1:14			$0.49
6	6.Gigue; 7.Sonatina: Adagio	2:03			$0.99
Heinrich Franz von Biber Composer Mensa Sonora seu Musica Instrumentalis, suites for violin, 2 violas and continuo, C.69-74...Part 2 in F, C.70 Work 7:07 Musica Antiqua Köln Early Music Ensemble, Reinhard Goebel Ensemble Director
7	1.Intrada	0:26			$0.49
8	2.Balletto 1	2:09			$0.99
9	3.Sarabanda 1	1:54			$0.49
10	4.Balletto 2	0:43			$0.49
11	5.Sarabanda 2	1:20			$0.49
12	6.Balletto 3	0:35			$0.49
Heinrich Franz von Biber Composer Mensa Sonora seu Musica Instrumentalis, suites for violin, 2 violas and continuo, C.69-74...Part 3 in A-, C.71 Work 9:30 Musica Antiqua Köln Early Music Ensemble, Reinhard Goebel Ensemble Director
13	1.Gagliarda: Allegro	1:25			$0.49
14	2.Sarabanda	2:20			$0.99
15	3.Aria	0:45			$0.49
16	4.Ciacona	4:22			$0.99
17	5.Sonatina: Adagio. Presto	0:38			$0.49
Heinrich Franz von Biber Composer Violin Sonata in A ('Representatio Avium'), C.146 Work 10:25 Musica Antiqua Köln Early Music Ensemble, Reinhard Goebel Ensemble Director
18	1.Allegro	2:10			$0.99
19	2.Nightingale	1:32			$0.49
20	3.Cuckoo	0:38			$0.49
21	4.Frog	1:13			$0.49
22	5.The Cock and the Hen	0:37			$0.49
23	6.Quail	0:47			$0.49
24	7.Cat	0:35			$0.49
25	8.Musketeer's March	0:40			$0.49
26	9.Allemande	2:13			$0.99
Heinrich Franz von Biber Composer Mensa Sonora seu Musica Instrumentalis, suites for violin, 2 violas and continuo, C.69-74...Part 4 in Bb, C.72 Work 9:22 Musica Antiqua Köln Early Music Ensemble, Reinhard Goebel Ensemble Director
27	1.Sonate	1:21			$0.49
28	2.Allamanda	1:55			$0.49
29	3.Courante	1:03			$0.49
30	4.Balletto	0:31			$0.49
31	5.Sarabanda	2:20			$0.99
32	6.Gigue	1:19			$0.49
33	7.Sonatina	0:53			$0.49
Heinrich Franz von Biber Composer Mensa Sonora seu Musica Instrumentalis, suites for violin, 2 violas and continuo, C.69-74...Part 5 in E, C.73 Work 5:56 Musica Antiqua Köln Early Music Ensemble, Reinhard Goebel Ensemble Director
34	1.Intrada	1:09			$0.49
35	2.Balletto	0:33			$0.49
36	3.Trezza	0:54			$0.49
37	4.Gigue 1	0:52			$0.49
38	5.Gavotte	0:58			$0.49
39	6.Gigue 2	0:56			$0.49
40	7.Retirada	0:34			$0.49
Heinrich Franz von Biber Composer Mensa Sonora seu Musica Instrumentalis, suites for violin, 2 violas and continuo, C.69-74...Part 6 in G-, C.74 Work 8:49 Musica Antiqua Köln Early Music Ensemble, Reinhard Goebel Ensemble Director
41	1.Sonata	0:38			$0.49
42	2.Aria	1:22			$0.49
43	3.Canario	0:42			$0.49
44	4.Amener	0:41			$0.49
45	5.Trezza	0:51			$0.49
46	6.Ciacona	4:04			$0.99
47	7.Sonatina	0:31			$0.49