Recordings

Biber – Mensa Sonora

Baroque Band presents works by Bohemian-Austrian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. One of the most important composers for the violin in the history of the instrument (the prominent 18th century music historian Charles Burney called Biber the best violin composer of the 17th century), Biber’sMensa Sonora (meaning ‘Harmonious Table’) was music composed for aristocratic dining, though it is anything but superficial background music. The disc closes with the 10-part Battalia for strings, which uses several unique devices for the time: hitting the strings with the wood of the bow, placing paper under the strings of the basses to imitate a snare drum, snap pizzicatos, and folk songs rendered simultaneously in several different keys to portray drunken soldiers.

$15