Search - Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Georg Muffat, John Holloway :: Biber; Muffat: Der Turken Anmarsch /Holloway * Assenbaum * Mortensen

Guts!

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 10/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mr. Hsieh, the previous reviewer, has gotten the basics right. This is splendidly eccentric and innovative music, meant to entertain you with virtuosity. John Holloway is a rare musician, one who has steadily improved his performance, from quite good to superb. The four Biber sonatas recorded here are full of contrasts and surprises, so that listening to several in a row lacks no sense of variety. If you've ever wondered, by the way, what difference gut strings on a fiddle and historically informed bow technique could possibly make, do yourself the favor of getting this CD. You'll HEAR the difference in the sound the violin makes."

Strong recommodation

HSIEH CHENG CHUNG | Taipei, Taiwan | 10/15/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I strongly recommand all this disc with two reasons, one is that I think Biber's violin sonata was very beautiful but seldom gotten honors. We could find his music was more creative with rich tone color. I must say that it isn't easy during his ages, which were full of italy violin tradition. Just for this reason, I think Biber was a graet musician.



Holloway perform well in this disc and show fully biber music's important element, deepgoing intension, so that I think Holloway should get good appreciation. Comparing to his early recordings, ex buxtehude sonata, I found his muisc was graduallu growing better and better.



Above these reasons, do you want to try it? I promise you won't be disappointment."

Holloway's the Only Way

M. De Sapio | Alexandria, VA | 06/16/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"John Holloway's recordings for the ECM New Series (there are six as of this writing) are more than just well-played traversals of baroque violin repertoire; they are intellectually stimulating and spiritually uplifting experiences. This entry, the second of a pair in which Holloway traverses the sonatas of Biber, is no exception. The remaining sonatas from the 1681 SONATAE VIOLINO SOLO are recorded here, along with a curious adaptation of Biber's "Crucifixion" sonata and a miraculous D major sonata by Georg Muffat.



Dignity and quiet intensity are two phrases which come to mind when I think of Holloway's incomparable playing. Every baroque violinist should envy the phenomenal resonance, purity, and richness of Holloway's tone; he knows how to make his violin really SING, not just dance. Holloway phrases eloquently, using rubato and agogic accents (emphatic lingering over certain notes) to telling effect. He handles the fast toccata-like passagework magnificently: the continuous thirty-second notes bubble forth with utter spontaneity yet also a sharply etched quality. When it comes to ornamentation, Holloway may come off as less spontaneous than other performers, but his ornaments are always beautifully natural and apt. Finally, in choosing a sumptuous continuo tapestry of organ and harpsichord (both players fleshing out the music to its full potential), Holloway has almost created a new kind of chamber music.



A few months after this recording was released, the organist, Aloysia Assembaum, who was also John Holloway's wife, succumbed to a long illness: a sad footnote which lends an elegiac air to the beautiful music on this CD."