Heinrich Biber wrote his Rosary or Mystery Sonatas in Salzburg in the 1670s, presumably for the traditional Rosary devotions in which the faithful meditated on events in the life of Jesus and Mary, helped by a cycle of paintings or sculptures and by performances of appropriate music. The sonatas are famous for their beauty, for the fearsome virtuosity required, and for their use of scordatura – the deliberate mistuning of the violin to alter its sonority and to facilitate the playing of chords.

In this concert Pavlo Beznosiuk plays five of the sonatas, each using a different tuning and representing respectively the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The cycle, and the concert, ends with Biber’s famous Passacaglia in G minor for unaccompanied violin, dedicated to the Guardian Angel.

The Ukranian-Irish violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk is one of the leading figures in the European early music scene, well known for his work with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, the New London Consort, and many other groups.

His recording on the Avie label of Biber’s Rosary Sonatas has been hailed by the critics: ‘performances that combine brilliant virtuosity with a profound understanding of the music’s profound spiritual significance, Daily Telegraph; ‘a triumph’, Music Web International.   Paula Chauteauneuf is one of London’s leading lutenists, working with the New London Consort, the Gabrieli Consort and many other groups.