a powerful account of Biber's masterpiece, bringing nobility, exuberance, severity and a strong contemplative dimension as and when the music requires. There is also a lively depictive element which she realises with vivid but restrained gestures...Here are performances which capture south German Baroque flamboyance onthe one hand and a deeply reflective spirit on the other.

[Kaakinen-Pilch] manages a wondrous balance of the folk music with which Biber would have been most familiar with the graceful, intellectual pieces they more readily are. This combination pays all the necessary dues to a unique set of pieces that is full of symbolism, musical extremism and the meditation on a mystery as complex as the 15 mysteries of the Rosary.

There’s not one recording that is less than exciting, and often profound but Kaakinen-Pilch’s splendidly realised contribution can be placed very high in the discography of the work.