Donald Macleod explores the music, and what little is known of the life, of Baroque master Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. Today, Biber runs an errand for his boss, but absconds en route.

Biber was born in the small town of Wartenberg (present-day Stráž pod Ralskem) in Bohemia – now in the Czech Republic, then part of the Holy Roman Empire – where his father worked as gamekeeper for the local bigwig. Biber’s first appearance in the historical records is in his early 20s, when we find him in the service of Karl Liechtenstein, prince-bishop of Olomouc in central Moravia. Liechtenstein was a huge music fan who maintained a first-rate choral and instrumental ensemble at nearby Kroměříž Castle, where he also kept an impressive library of musical scores – to this day, the source of all Biber’s surviving autographs. We’ll probably never know the precise circumstances that drove the 26-year-old Biber to leave the Prince-Bishop’s service so abruptly, but when the opportunity presented itself, he seized it with both hands. Dispatched on a lengthy trek to the Austrian Tyrol to collect some instruments from a celebrated violin-maker there, he only made it around three-quarters of the way: as far as Salzburg, where he did a bunk, trading in his old employer for a new and even more illustrious one, Prince-Archbishop Maximilian Gandolph von Küenburg. In Salzburg, Biber put down roots, married the daughter of a wealthy local businessman, fathered eleven children and gradually rose through the court ranks to become Kapellmeister. His risky career-gamble had paid off.

Missa Alleluia (Kyrie)
Soloists of St Florianer Sängerknaben
Markus Forster, Alois Mühlbacher, alto
Markus Miesenberger, Bernd Lambauer, tenor
Gerhard Kenda, Ulfried Staber, bass
Ars Antiqua Austria
Gunar Letzbor, conductor

Sonata ‘La pastorella’
Reinhard Goebel, violin
Phoebe Carrai, cello
Thierry Maeder, organ

Battalia a 10 (Sonata di marche)
Le Concert des Nations
Jordi Savall, conductor

Sonata violino solo representativa
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, baroque violin
Anthony Romaniuk, harpsichord

Partita VI in D (Harmonia Artificioso-Ariosa)
The Purcell Quartet

Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales Show less