Mensa Sonora: Biber and His Contemporaries [Import]

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (Composer), Georg Muffat (Composer), Johann Michael Nicolai (Composer), Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (Composer), Augustinus Kertzinger (Composer), Les Masques (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Les Masques
• Composer: Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Georg Muffat, Johann Michael Nicolai, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Augustinus Kertzinger
• Audio CD (April 5, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Analekta
• ASIN: B000EBEH1I
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #366,861 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Sonata VIII a cinque in G Major (From Sonatae tam aris quam aulis servientes, 1676): (Allegro) - Presto - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio : (Allegro) - Presto - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio

2. Sonata II in G Minor (From Armonico Tributo, 1682) : I. Grave

3. Sonata II in G Minor (From Armonico Tributo, 1682) : II. Allegro

4. Sonata II in G Minor (From Armonico Tributo, 1682) : III. Grave

5. Sonata II in G Minor (From Armonico Tributo, 1682) : IV. Forte e allegro, Grave

6. Sonata II in G Minor (From Armonico Tributo, 1682) : V. Aria

7. Sonata II in G Minor (From Armonico Tributo, 1682) : VI. Grave

8. Sonata II in G Minor (From Armonico Tributo, 1682) : VII. Sarabanda (grave)

9. Sonata II in G Minor (From Armonico Tributo, 1682) : VIII. Grave

10. Sonata II in G Minor (From Armonico Tributo, 1682) : IX. Borea (alla breve)

11. Sonata a tre viol da gamba (Excerpts) : I. Adagio

12. Sonata a tre viol da gamba (Excerpts) : II. Allegro - Adagio

13. Sonata a tre viol da gamba (Excerpts) : III. Ciaconi adagio

14. Pars III in A Minor (From Mensa sonora, 1680) : I. Gagliarda

15. Pars III in A Minor (From Mensa sonora, 1680) : II. ( )

16. Pars III in A Minor (From Mensa sonora, 1680) : III. Aria

17. Pars III in A Minor (From Mensa sonora, 1680) : IV. Ciacona

18. Pars III in A Minor (From Mensa sonora, 1680) : V. Sonatina

19. Sonata VII a cinque in A Major (From Sacro-profanum concentus musicus, 1662) Adagio-Allegro-Allegro-Allegro-Adagio-Allegro-Adagio : Adagio-Allegro-Allegro-Allegro-Adagio-Allegro-Adagio

20. Sonatina for viola da gamba and continuo

See all 29 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Olivier Fortin Founder and director of the Montreal-based early music ensemble Masques, Olivier Fortin graduated with distinction from the Québec Conservatory in 1995. He continued his training with Dom André Laberge, obtained a Master Degree from University of Montreal under the direction of Prof. Réjean Poirier, and received several scholarships for studies in Paris with Pierre Hantai and in Amsterdam with Bob van Asperen. In 1997 he was awarded top prizes at the Montreal Bach Competition and the Bruges Festival. He is increasingly esteemed as a soloist and chamber musician, touring and recording throughout Europe, the United States and Canada with ensembles such as Masques, Capriccio Stravagante, Tafelmusik, Chanticleer, the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal and Les Voix Humaines as well as ...

Full text » Founder and director of the Montreal-based early music ensemble Masques, Olivier Fortin graduated with distinction from the Québec Conservatory in 1995. He continued his training with Dom André Laberge, obtained a Master Degree from University of Montreal under the direction of Prof. Réjean Poirier, and received several scholarships for studies in Paris with Pierre Hantai and in Amsterdam with Bob van Asperen. In 1997 he was awarded top prizes at the Montreal Bach Competition and the Bruges Festival. He is increasingly esteemed as a soloist and chamber musician, touring and recording throughout Europe, the United States and Canada with ensembles such as Masques, Capriccio Stravagante, Tafelmusik, Chanticleer, the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal and Les Voix Humaines as well as playing with Skip Sempé and Pierre Hantaï in a harpsichord trio. Olivier Fortin teaches harpsichord and chamber music at the Conservatoire de Musique de Quebec.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Music and Food -- A Voluptuous Concord, June 28, 2006

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mensa Sonora: Biber and His Contemporaries (Audio CD)

When I first listened to this collection of 17th-century pieces I didn't read the booklet notes but simply drank in the wonderful sounds. I was thinking that it was a little gauche of me to be doing something else at the time the CD was playing. In fact, I was preparing and eating my breakfast. Only when I read the booklet notes did I learn the meaning of the CD's title -- 'Mensa Sonora' -- namely 'Sonorous Table', roughly the same as 'Tafelmusik', 'table music', music to be heard while one was eating. Nice coincidence, I thought, but I still felt a little guilty at not giving the music my full attention. Reading further, though, my guilt was relieved. Clearly the composers of this music knew the function of the music and no matter that it is expertly written (and played here): still it is meant for casual enjoyment, not the studious attention expected of, say, 19th- and 20th-century music. But since I knew I was going to be writing a review, I decided I really owed it to the music and to the performers to listen carefully. I'm glad I did. This is lovely music, yes, but it also exemplifies typically neat Baroque craft; that is particularly true for the music of Heinrich Biber, two of whose string sonatas and the third and sixth partitas from his eponymous 'Mensa Sonora' are included here (as well as a solo violin passacaglia from the justly celebrated 'Rosary Sonatas', works that have burst upon the scene with multiple recordings in the past few years).

The other works here, all of a piece with the Biber, are by even less familiar composers, all born within a generation of each other in the early 1600s: Georg Muffat, Johann Michael Nicolai, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Augustinus Kertzinger. All of it is for combinations of string instruments -- violins, violas da gamba and continuo of positif organ or harpsichord. The performances by the expert Montréal early music group, Masques, are brisk, stylistically apt, precisely articulated and entirely engaging.

Highlights for me are Biber's two Sonatas, his two 'Mensa Sonora' partitas and the solo violin passacaglia (the CD's haunting last track played gorgeously by Sophie Gent); also the viola da gamba trio by Nicolai (three violas da gamba, making a sensuously luscious sound as played by Elin Söderström, Mélisande Corriveau and Josh Cheatham). But the whole thing is worth every penny and I'll wager that if you get it you'll find yourself playing it again and again. It's that enjoyable.

Scott Morrison