专辑简介

This is a matter of small importance‚ since Monica Huggett’s arrival at these marvels of the 17th­century violin repertoire‚ no less than Manze’s‚ has the authority of a player to the manner born. Huggett has a strong but fluent technique‚ and produces from her violin a sweet sound at all times‚ rarely forcing the tone into stridency (as Manze does‚ for instance in the clashing dissonances of the ‘Variation of Sonata No 5). Rather‚ her navigation of what Charles Burney‚ writing in the 1770s‚ called the ‘most difficult and most fanciful music of any I have seen of the period’ is characterised‚ not by Manze’s energetic interpretative gestures‚ but by her own rather aristocratic brand of easy poise and balance‚ proving that these sonatas can work well as pure music‚ without the need for urgent drama. It is an alternative view of Biber from that of fiery virtuoso (though virtuosity is certainly needed to achieve it)‚ and rather a seductive one it is too‚ nowhere more so than in Huggett’s playing of those affecting ‘aria’ melodies which Biber is apt to introduce once a sonata is under way. Two other works jostle for space with the sonatas: the solo Passacaglia‚ which Huggett plays with calm introspection; and the rarely heard psalm­setting Nisi Dominus‚ for bass‚ violin and continuo‚ in which a little more assertiveness from Thomas Guthrie would have been welcome but then his is not much of a part; all the good music in this piece‚ all the comment‚ is most definitely for the violin. Huggett is backed up throughout by a fine continuo team‚ with Gary Cooper especially inventive on keyboards. I enjoyed these performances immensely; they are utterly violinistic‚ utterly stylish‚ and utterly Biber.