Repertoire

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber was the outstanding violin virtuoso of the 17th century, and composed violin sonatas that are still very much in the repertoire. Some of them require the violin to be tuned differently than usual, in the so-called scordatura. Biber started his career in central Moravia, and during the winter of 1670-71, he became a member of the chapel at the Salzberg court where he eventually became Ka pellmeister. Although known especially for his works for violin, he also composed ensemble pieces and vocal pieces, both sacred and secular. In his sacred music, Biber was capable of writing a cappella masses as well as huge concerted works for solo and ripieno voices with large orchestra.

Biber’s style is predictable only for its unpredictability. Many of his violin pieces are intensely chormatic and reflect an almost mystic spiritualism. His choral music rarely is this visionary, and would have been familiar sounding to an audence who also heard Dietrich Buxtehude and other pre-Bach German composers. An exception to this, however, is the Requiem in f m inor; while reflecting the style and tone color of the late 17th-century German baroque, it looks forward to the classical era in a way unique to music of the period.