Freiburger Barockorchester Consort performs sonatas by Biber and Schmelzer

This release from the mid-1990s is a real gem, featuring Petra Mullejans in the driver's seat of a reduced-size of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. I first reviewed it in 2005.

I can still remember where I picked this up—I believe it was at the Planet Music in Virginia Beach, Virginia, likely in 1995, right before I said goodbye to my boyfriend before his semester away to study in London.

Included are several of Biber's Sonate a Cinque for trumpets. The real gems are the string consort music by Schmelzer. The Biber pieces are played well enough, but they're hard to take one after the other; they work well, instead, I think, as "breaks" between longer, more substantial pieces. This is how some were treated in a later release by MAK entitled Sonata Pro Tabula.

Several of the Schmelzer pieces are labeled "Lamento," and in each, the top violin part takes the stage. FBOC takes parts slow, where it seems most appropriate, but they can transform themselves into a speed demons, too.

While I've acquired other releases with some of these pieces since the late 1990s, I come back to this one, and the expert handling of the violin phrasing by Mullejans. The blend of the ensemble, and the darkness of continuo organ, make the sonority as rich, at times, as a thick hot chocolate.

I am confident this can be found for cheap in re-issue or in a digital download. I can affirm that it has stood the test of time and remains a favorite.

Having revisited this in November 2025, I am still impressed with the playing here, which is very tight and shows no weaknesses among the players assembled.