While the more famous Mystery Sonatas have quickly found friends, the 1681 set is still largely unknown. Yet what's immediately noticeable from this premiere recording of the sonatas is that Biber isn't only a legendary virtuoso, probably never bettered in the 17th or 18th centuries, but one of the most inventive composers of his age: bold and exciting, certainly, but also elusive, mercurial and mysterious. Most of the works are preludes, arias and variations of an unregulated nature: improvisatory preludes over naked pedals and lucid arias juxtaposing with eccentric rhetorical conceits are mixed up in an unpredictable phantasm of contrast, and yet at its best it all adds up to a unified structure of considerable potency.
Andrew Manze is the player par excellence for music that requires a considered response to complement the adventurous spirit of the virtuoso.
This is masterful playing in which he doesn't overcharacterise Biber's volatile temperament.
The preludes are sweet and restrained, yet there's also a held-back, almost smouldering quality, skilfully pitched against the free-wheeling energy of the fast music.