The English Concert Choir of the English Concert Andrew Manze, director
Biber was considered the greatest violinist of his day, so it is appropriate the Andrew Manze, directing The English Concert, stamps his particular brand of fire and virtuosity on the Missa Christi Resurgentis. This Easter mass was brought to light in Dr. James Clements' recent millenium edition after languishing in a Czech monastery for three centuries. Following the Salzburg custom of interspersing the mass sections with instrumental works, the liturgical elements are replaced by instrumental music by Biber and Schmelzer. An early work, the mass bears Biber's hallmark nartural expressivity and Manze with the English Concert brings to it a ringing vibrancy.
About the Artists "Dazzling inventive... [Manze] has introduced an element of vitality and even danger to Boroque performance." -San Francisco Chronicle
"[Manze's] playing is at once spontaneously inventive and magisterially controlled... I've never heard the music played with such raw feeling." -The New Yorker