★★★★☆
If you had told me at the start of the week that I’d still be listening to Biber on Friday, my response would have been dusty and unprintable. Middle-European music before Johann Sebastian Bach has about as much interest for me as a squeezed-out tube of toothpaste. The world of Heinrich Biber, a Salzburg violin composer in the Italian style, was rendered obsolete by the birth in 1785 of Bach and Handel. Biber kept plugging away until 1704, just about long enough to see himself dwarfed by genius. His music, as much as I have heard, is unadventurous and ingratiating, pleasant enough but numbing after a while as the ear cries out for variety. In short, not my kind of composer.
What changes my mind in this album is the slinky, fun-loving playing style of violinist Rachel Podger and the Brecon Baroque period instrumentalists. I’m guessing these musicians play standing up because there is a bounciness to the six sonatas that I’ve not heard before in Biber. It’s fresh, athletic, teasing and a bit gravelly here and there to sustain my attention between smoothie chords. Podger is totally on her toes, a challenging leader with a mind of her own. I gather she’s going to be leading Simon Rattle’s baroque ensemble in Munich next season.
Did I mention the humour? There are a couple of good jokes in the music and the album title appears to refer to an obscure Canadian singer, lately occluded by political events in his country. What’s not to like?
