Sonora Mazuren

The Purcell Quartet appears to be recording all of Heinrich Biber's string chamber music and their flexible lineup – Jane Rogers joins on viola to fill out the fifth part here – certainly facilitates Biber's rather unique requirements. The main concentration of Purcell Quartet's attention to Biber was in the 1990s; between 1994 and 1997, it recorded, in quick succession, the Harmonia artificiosa ariosa, Sonatae tam aris quam Aulis servientes, and the Fidicunium Sacro-Profanum. With this recording of the Mensa sonora, the only string chamber works Biber left that the Purcell Quartet hasn't gotten to are mostly solo sonatas – the Mystery Sonatas, the sonatas of 1681, and a number of miscellaneous sonatas and occasional pieces, not all of which are squarely landed in the camp of Biber and all of which are smaller than they are.