大象传媒

Jordi Savall directs Biber's colossal Missa Salisburgensis in a recording made during this year's Resonanzen Festival in Vienna

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: Missa Salisburgensis
Hesperion XXI, Le Concert des Nations & La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Jordi Savall (director)

Biber's Missa Salisburgensis is probably the largest piece of baroque vocal music, scored for a total of 53 parts including two choruses and six instrumental groups. Yet it is said that the work might never have reached modern ears: the story goes that a 19th-century Austrian shopkeeper came close to using the pages of the sole manuscript copy to wrap vegetables, but was prevented from doing so in the nick of time by a horrified local choirmaster.