Search - Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, The Purcell Quartet, Peter Harvey (Bass) :: Heinrich von Biber: Sacro-profanum - The Purcell Quartet

Forget the complicated title: what we have here is a vivacious and charming set of sonatas for stringed instruments and continuo (keyboard instrument or lute). A sonata during the Baroque period could be almost anything, but in this case refers to a multi-movement composition that usually begins with a slow music, ends quickly, and excludes obvious dance music. The famous Battaglia is a program piece that features soldiers marching around, their drunken celebration (in several keys) before battler, the battle itself, and the lament of the wounded. It's great fun, as is all of Biber's music, actually. He remains, along with Zelenka, the great undiscovered master of the Baroque period. Now you know. --David Hurwitz