Artistic supervision of the festival
Dimos Goudaroulis
The famous and unique collection of
15 Sonatas for violin and bass continuo by Austrian composer and virtuoso violinist Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, known as the
Mystery Sonatas or
Rosary Sonatas, was published exactly 350 years ago, in 1674. This collection represents and combines in the most plausible way the intense religious character and, at the same time, the incredibly open and experimental spirit of 17th-century instrumental baroque music. Each of these
15 Sonatas symbolizes one of the 15 devotional mysteries of the Roman Catholic Church, divided into three sections - the joyful mysteries (Annunciation, Nativity), the painful mysteries (the Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion) and the glorious mysteries (Resurrection, Ascension). At the same time, each of these Sonatas proposes a different
scordatura, a different tuning of the violin strings, pushing the technical, expressive and timbral possibilities of the violin, the instrument itself and the performer to the limit. The three leading musicians in this concert perform together around the world as members of the baroque ensemble of renowned violinist Daniel Hope.