Les Sonates du Rosaire de Biber sont des chefs-d’œuvre. La Passacaille surnommée « L’ange gardien », située à la fin du recueil, est la seule pièce pour violon seul. Avec son motif de quatre notes descendantes répété 65 fois, elle crée un climat fascinant et méditatif dans lequel on ne se lasse pas de s’immerger. Vilsmaÿr est bien moins connu que son aîné, mais les Partitas pour violon seul de son Artificiosus Concentus Pro Camera, sont de beaux fleurons du baroque autrichien. Les Partitas I et VI sont des suites recueillies et légères, qui s’animent et dansent dans un climat paisible. La Partita V, elle, est écrite en scordatura (l’instrument étant accordé sol, ré, la, ré au lieu de sol, ré, la, mi) : son univers harmonique est donc plus étrange, mais aussi plus captivant. C’est également dans cette pièce que le modèle des sonates de Biber est le plus sensible. Liliana Bernardi est une interprète sensible de ces pièces où chante l’âme solitaire. L’acoustique réverbérée de l’Abbaye San Martino al Cimino de Viterbe lui est un bel écrin. (Emmanuel Lacoue-Labarthe) H.I.F. Biber and J.J. Vilsmaÿr also appeared in the recent past a bit secluded and, let’s face it, they had been confined somehow to the shadows by all of us, dazzled by the marvellous expansion of musical art from the end of the 18th century throughout the 19th century with unimaginable peaks and then by the persistent search for new “avenidas” in the ‘900 continuing to the present day. But in the art of the violin - an instrument of recent creation and of absolute greatness- we had reached at the end of the ‘600s, with the bold progresses of the Austrian violin school, as well as the Italian (think of Corelli) and the German ones, great achievements indeed. Biber, Schmelzer, Muffat, Vilsmaÿr had risen really high, thus inducing a persistent influence on their times and almost throughout the ‘700. The music of Austrian baroque composers, as it reached a point of high perfection, was proposed in its time to act as a musical pendant of secular ceremonies as well as convivial moments in which the “allowed satisfaction”, that is the enjoying of food, took place. it was exalted even more by the careful counterpoint of the sounds that were sometimes of joy, of support, of crossing over borders. While for greater glory the attention to the divine service was registered in the same composition, if need be, with a wealth of sounds intended this time to promote the ascent of the soul towards the divine Revelation.
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