Walter Meyer wrote:

>Based on a public radio broadcast (St. Paul Sunday?) featuring
>Romanesca playing Biber, and some of the posts to this thread, I used a
>store credit to buy a low priced Romanesca CD of Biber Violin Sonatas Nos.
>I, III, V, & VI ...
>
>It's Harmonia Mundi HMX 2907225 and I think its low price (US$7.98) is
>because it's a promotional CD.

This is an excerpt disk that both Walter and earlier, Dave Lewis mention,
from the double CD Romanesca album that's been so discussed in this thread
(for ease of reference, it's the set of sonatas with the illustration of
Big Bird on the cover:-)

To clarify (I hope), the numbered sonatas come from the "Sonatae a Violino
solo", of 1681.  These are NOT the Mystery/Rosary sonatas.  The "Sonata
Representativa" is a separate work, not tied to the 1681 set, or the
Rosaries.  The Passacaglia for unaccompanied violin IS the 16th
Mystery/Rosary Sonata, aka the "Passacaglia of the Guardian Angel".

I wouldn't be surprised if Manze eventually does the full Rosary set.
The Passacaglia can be considered a preview, as is the Sonata "The
Victory of the Christians over the Turks", which is attributed to Andreas
Schmelzer, but is in fact an altered version of Biber's 10th Rosary Sonata
on the Crucifixion.  This work is on the Romanesca album of Schmelzer
sonatas, Harmonia Mundi 907143.  Further info on the relationship of these
two versions of the same sonata, as well as more on Biber himself, can be
found at this website:

   http://www.aliasnet.it/musae/bibeng.htm

(As a side note, today I used part of a Borders Birthday gift card
toward the purchase of the "Missa Salisburgensis", the McCreesh/ Goebel
performance that Don Satz posted about here last month.  Haven't listened
to all of it, but this record definitely falls into the category of a
"Leasebuster" album....nearly blew out my KEFs!8->)

Bill H.