Rosenkranz-Sonaten = Sonatas Of The Rosary = Sonates Du Rosaire

The Rosenkranz-Sonaten, or Mystery Sonatas, were composed by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber around 1676. These violin sonatas are renowned for their use of scordatura, a technique where the violin is tuned non-standardly to depict the fifteen mysteries of the life of the Virgin Mary. Biber’s work remained largely obscure for centuries until the twentieth century, when early music scholars and performers began re-evaluating his virtuosic and expressive contributions to the Baroque repertoire.

This specific recording was produced by Archiv Produktion, the esteemed Deutsche Grammophon imprint dedicated to historical performance practice. Released as catalog number 2708 012, the performance features violinist Eduard Melkus accompanied by a distinguished continuo group including Huguette Dreyfus, Lionel Rogg, and Karl Scheit. The recording is widely regarded by musicologists as a landmark achievement in the modern revival of Biber's work, praised for its technical precision and adherence to the stylistic nuances of the seventeenth-century Austrian school.