Scordatura Tour De force

Some remarkable music on this double cd by Andrew Manze on violin and Richard Egarr on organ and harpsichord playing the entire Rosary Sonatas by Biber. One sonata also has a cello part which is played by Alison McGillivray. There are fifteen Rosary sonatas based on the life of Christ and divided into five "joyful" sonatas, five "sorrowful" sonatas and five "glorious mysteries". The differences in tone and mood aren't necessarily connected to those designations in a any crass happy or sad way but the entire work is obviously spiritual and wouldd be a great meditation aid which was probably the original conception. It is now however a wonderful display piece for the violin. Each sonata has a different violin tuning using the technique of scordatura. There is a bonus track at the end of disk two where Manze explains this technique with sound examples. Basically, it involves reconnection of the vilin strings to different stops so that the player's figuration remains the same but the sounds are radically altered. Akin to a modern day guitarist using slide or electronis pedal effects to change the sound of the instument. It is really a violin players tour de force ( there is another bonus track of an unaccompanied passagalia )but the understated contributions on the two keyboard instruments by Richard Egarr shouldn't be underestimated and add to the very atmospheric recording which places just enough space around the instruments in the acoustic.