Walther / Pohn / Riccabona - Minoriten-Codex [CD]

This debut album of Austrian violinist Nina Pohn presents seven of the sonatas from Codex 726 of the Vienna Minorite Convent (Nos. 81 to 87), all of which are premiere recordings apart from Nos. 82 and 87. Johann Jakob Walther is the author of Sonata No. 83, and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber of Sonata No. 84; the other sonatas are anonymous. In light of Biber's outstanding role in the history of scordatura on the violin, it is remarkable that no scordatura is included in Sonata No. 84. Here, scordatura is only required in the anonymous sonatas No. 81 in A major and No. 85 in A minor. These recordings took place in the church St. Anna in Steinbruch (Upper Austria). It's historical, single manual organ, built in 1726 by the Linz organ builder Josef Richter, is perfectly suited for this music. In the context of historical performance techniques, four of the seven sonatas were recorded with the violin resting below the collar bone. That said, all were performed using the early baroque bow grip.