Mystery (Rosenkranz) sonatas (Demeterová) (1996)

"In this new recording, Gabriela Demeterova, playing a modern violin, with organist Jaroslav Tuma, performs the first seven of the Mystery Sonatas in sequence. She also plays the unaccompanied violin Passacaglia in G minor which properly belongs, if it belongs at all, at the end of the sequence of Mysteries. Thus we have the five Joyful Mysteries with two of the Sorrowful ones. One of the devices which Biber employed in all but the first of the sonatas is that of scordatura or retuning of one or more strings. In this way he was able to realize sounds and effects impossible on a violin tuned in conventional fifths. Demeterova produces a beautiful sound and it is one of the chief pleasures of her performance. But there are other strong features, too, among them an expressive sensibility to the underlying subject of each piece. I was, however, disappointed by the conservatism and blandness of her continuo support". (Nicholas Anderson, www.gramophone.co.uk).