Our April Recording of the Month is a dance-inspired account of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas from Baroque violinist Amandine Beyer and her ensemble Gli Incogniti (Harmonia Mundi HMM 902712.13). The album literally sprang out of Beyer’s collaboration with choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, performances that interpreted Biber’s suites on the life and death of Jesus and the Virgin Mary through contemporary dance. Arranged in three cycles – the Five Joyful Mysteries, the Five Sorrowful Mysteries and the Five Glorious Mysteries – Biber’s stunning compositions drew on the dance music of his day, from allemandes and courantes to sarabandes and gigues.

On the Record April 2023

“Of previous recordings, Rachel Podger’s stately, almost self-effacing account and Andrew Manze’s more demonstrative reading are my Top Two. I should say were: this one goes straight to No. 1,” writes Will Yeoman in a five-star review. “Beyer’s fluid exuberance in the demisemiquaver passages, or neatness in the intervallic leaps, or gusto in the multiple stopping is miraculous, yes. But what sets her playing apart is a visceral quality, which one doesn’t always associate with Baroque music, coupled with a seemingly primal urge to reconnect refined baroque dance forms with dance...