The elevation of Biber to the ranks of the greats continues. He was known only to specialists and historically minded violinists 20 years ago, but now recordings of his choral works are turning up more and more often next to the mystical, experimental instrumental pieces for which he is best known. Biber's choral music is quite different in flavor from his instrumental music; much of it is vast in scale, diametrically opposed to the intimate Mystery Sonatas. The early Missa Christi Resurgentis heard here was written for the vast Salzburg Cathedral, nicely pictured on the cover of the present disc. It follows the pattern of the Italian polychoral style, with small groups of singers and brasses originally deployed around the cathedral's complex space. This recording, by the New York Collegium, sets out to create an authentic recording of the work, with SACD sound used to capture the spatial dimension, historically correct instruments, and pieces of chant and instrumental works used to separate sections of the mass as they would have been in an Austrian service of Biber's time. It's an admirable aim, but the execution is faulty on nearly all counts: the boy sopranos who take some of the solo sections are inadequate to the dimensions of the work; the sound is muddy; and the pace has a certain lumbering quality that does not serve the glittering music of Biber well. This disc may be more authentic than a competing recording by
Andrew Manze and musicians from the
English Concert, but that recording is nevertheless worth investigating.