Misterioso - Biber meets Piazzolla | Opening Concert

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, one of the great violin masters of the 17th century, tells the "Holy Mysteries" of the Rosary in his 15 sonatas through highly virtuosic musical imagery. The sensuality of the Baroque draws on the bond between God and man, on a faith that was once inseparable from bodily experience - and that is precisely where the parallel with tango lies: tango, too, carries an almost religious gravity and celebrates physical closeness between a man and a woman. In the Mystery Sonatas one witnesses an act of love through the Holy Spirit; in Astor Piazzolla's Tango Nuevo, hearts beat and blood rushes.

Both styles translate feeling into sound, despite the centuries between them. Played on period instruments, tango gains a raw immediacy, the boundaries between eras begin to blur, until it no longer matters which style or century you are in.