Product Description Chicago's 'stylish and exciting period-instrument group' (Chicago Tribune), Baroque Band presents works by the Bohemian-Austrian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, 'the most important Baroque composer before Bach' according to Paul Hindemith, and unquestionably one of the most innovative and influential composers of the second half of the seventeenth century. Biber's Mensa 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 on the strings of the basses to imitate a snare drum, snap pizzicatos (à la Bartók!), and folk songs rendered simultaneously in eight different keys to portray drunken soldiers. Review Ãedille Records' Biber: Mensa Sonora, Battalia is the first release from newly founded, Chicago-based period instrument group Baroque Band as led by its young director Garry Clarke. Violinist Clarke studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Catherine Mackintosh, who at the time was serving dual purpose roles as concertmaster with both the Academy of Ancient Music and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Clarke put in service with both these groups, and you may add the Sixteen, Hanover Band, and the King's Consort to that list before Clarke left for America in 2004 to join the faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago. Baroque Band was started in 2007 and in its first two seasons managed to play some 80 concerts; it has been welcomed by the City of Chicago as its resident period-instrument orchestra in an unofficial capacity. Of course, by the time of release, all of Biber's music, provided there are no further discoveries among the disordered mass of manuscripts held at KromerÃz Cathedral, has been recorded, pieces such as Battalia many times. So the discovery aspect of Biber -- once so critical in driving interest in his oeuvre -- has lapsed and now his work has moved into the sphere of interpretation. What Clarke has done here is take the Partitas in Biber's Mensa Sonora publication of 1680 and interpret them as orchestral works rather than in the chamber context in which they are already familiar. Mensa Sonora well survives such treatment; in fact, it survives it so well that if it weren't for the existence of super exceptional interpretations of the piece in chamber dimensions -- such as that by La Follia Salzburg for Lyrichord -- that this Ãedille recording takes the brass ring for the Biber work; the recording is full-throated, as is the ensemble, and the playing is vibrantly dynamic without outdistancing the "Tafelmusik" purpose to which Mensa Sonora was designed to conform. There is plenty of opportunity for Baroque Band to let down its hair in Battalia, particularly in the "here is all dissonance" section, which Clarke takes more slowly than many, affording the listener a chance to hear what Biber is really up to in this seemingly Ivesian section. One might have wanted a similar approach in the concluding, post-battle plaint, but in terms of interpretation, Clarke's ideas in terms of realization and Baroque style are completely sound throughout the disc. Battalia alone makes Ãedille Records' Biber: Mensa Sonora, Battalia worth the price of admission, but the whole should please Biber's established following and newcomers alike. -- AllMusic.com, Uncle Dave Lewis, March 2010
C**R
Biber's dinner music
If you think of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Von Biber (love that name) mostly as a composer of large-scaled polychoral works and gnarly music for solo violin, his Mensa Sonora is going to surprise you. Mensa Sonora, or "sounding table," is a set of instrumental suites or "Pars" for dining - think of the French Symphonies pour les soupers du Roy or Telemann's Tafelmusik and you will get the picture.While the music is not as challenging as some of Biber's other instrumental suites - Harmonia artificiosa or Sonatae tam aris quam aulis servientes come to mind - there is plenty of melodic and rhythmic invention that raises the music to something more than Baroque Muzak. The CD is rounded out by Biber's programmatic Battalia, a work filled with such special effects as knocking on the violin in some passages and playing 8 folk songs all in different keys at the same time! It's boozy fun.The performances are excellent. The Chicago-based Baroque Band eschews the typical one-on-a-part style with a larger ensemble and it serves the larger-scaled passages well. While I prefer the raucous Concentus Musicus Wien performance of Battalia, it's really a treat to hear such a full-bodied performance of the Mensa Sonora.
R**.
4 stars for the music - 5 stars for the performance
Baroque Band are a new period instrument group based in Chicago directed by British violinist Garry Clarke.I believe this is their first recording and what a start!!!!.Biber's Mensa Sonora (1680) is probably his least interesting composition for instrumental ensemble and no match for his Sonatae Tam Aris Servientes (1676) or Harmonia Ariosa (1696).Mensa Sonora was in fact intended as background music for aristocratic entertainment and not really meant to be listened too so it's pretty remarkable what Baroque Band have achieved in this recording.By playing with more than one instrument to a part they give the music a small chamber orchestra sound and by doing so,have brought the music to life better than any of the other recordings by the Purcell Quartet,Musica Antiqua Koln or La Follia Salzburg.Mr Clarke and his ensemble also benefit from extremely good sound engineering.If this is what Baroque Band can do with background music then i can hardly wait for them to record Handel's op6 or Bach's Brandenburgs.
