Biber – Mensa Sonora; Battalia
Baroque Band; Garry Clarke
Cedille CDR 90000 116
Pity the poor composer who needs must provide music meant to be ignored! Such is the case for Biber’s collection of genteel pieces for dining, the six suites for strings entitled Mensa Sonora (Sonorous Table) served up in 1680 for the gustatory delectation of his then employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg. Not initially expecting anything special, I was pleasantly surprised at the cunning of Biber’s art. He manages by dint of the off-kilter asymmetries of his melodic craft to project a sub-text of sophistication completely over the head of his patron. Biber marvellously subverts the conventions of the genre, concluding the whole enterprise with a disjointed denouement worthy of Haydn. He proves himself a visionary as well with the celebrated, outlandish Battalia in 10 parts of 1673 in which one finds innovations not to be exploited again until centuries later: the snap-pizzicato of Bartok; playing with the wood of the bow à la Berlioz; and, in the loopy inebriation of a scene depicting drunken soldiers, the polytonality and collage technique of Charles Ives. As director and concertmaster Gerry Clarke mentions in his liner notes, Biber (1644-1704), the Bohemian-Austrian violin virtuoso and composer, was regarded by Paul Hindemith to be “the most important Baroque composer before Bach”, yet it is only in recent decades that his music has seen a significant revival. The Chicago-based Baroque Band, formed in 2007, plays this music to perfection with a highly effective blend of subtlety and precision. Truly delicious!
