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Editorial Reviews

The "Missa Christi Resurgentis," for soloists, double chorus, orchestra, and continuo, is among the most "public" works of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, quite distinct from the experimental smaller pieces that have put this seventeenth century Austrian composer on the map. It's a double-choir mass in an older style, written for Salzburg's sumptuous cathedral with its various wings, with lots of antiphonal writing in which choirs answer each other from across the upper reaches of the building with sumptuous chains of suspensions. Dramatic contrasts of light and shade accent mysteries of the mass, with a truly gorgeous interpretation of the crucifixion of Christ. The booklet for this disc, issued in 2005 and rather quickly reissued in 2008, does not state a recording location, but whether it was in Salzburg or not, the disc represents an impressive piece of sound engineering, picking voices and Baroque strings and brasses out of a vast space. The performance is under the direction of violinist and conductor Andrew Manze, perhaps the single figure most responsible for bringing Biber's music to general Baroque audiences. It's generally at a high level. The historical instruments played by the English Concert seem to have been carefully picked with an ear toward the overall blend, which is precise and of an appropriate smoothness and luxury. Inserted among the movements of the mass are instrumental sonatas for brasses by Biber, and in one especially specatular case by Schmelzer (track 7), which are both historically and musically appropriate. The weak spot here, perhaps, is the underpowered choir of nine, which doesn't give a strong sense of the text and is treated as a single ingredient in the complex sonic web as a whole. Clearly they execute what they were asked to do, but the choir was what Biber's audiences came to the cathedral to hear. The disc remains a competent overall rendering of this major seventeenth century mass. James Manheim, All Music Guide

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