Image depicting Mary's Coronation Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Performed by Anne Loeser (baroque violin), Jane Young (baroque cello), Bethany Angus (organ)
The final Mystery of the Rosary is The Coronation of Mary in Heaven. This is another Mystery without a contemporaneously recorded backstory. Mary has only been worshipped as The Queen of Heaven (Regina Coeli) since perhaps as late as the twelfth century. Of course, to be a legitimate queen she must have been actually crowned, and including her Coronation in the Mysteries ensures that the belief will endure.
Biber's Coronation of Mary in Heaven is in C major, with a resonant, open sounding scordatura of two G’s, a C and a D. There are four distinct movements. The first, titled Sonata, is followed by an Aria with three variations. Interestingly enough the Aria is based on the same melody that Handel used sixty years later for the Amen at the end of Messiah. The Rosary Sonatas were not published until the very end of the 19th century; they disappeared, unknown, following Biber's death in 1704, and were unheard-of until their discovery in Munich a hundred and eighty years later. Therefore, Handel cannot have picked up his Amen melody from Biber. Did they both use a well-known hymn tune? Or was it a complete coincidence?
Biber follows his Aria and variations with a Canzon which again makes use of the same familiar Amen melody. The final Mystery of the Rosary finishes with a Sarabanda, that melancholic slow Spanish dance of Mexican origin. The second half sounds like a romantic rubato is being employed but no, it's actually written out like that. There are no trumpets and drums at Mary’s Coronation, The Glorious Mysteries conclude with beauty, grace, and a minimum of fuss.
Programme notes by Gregory Hill.
Producer/engineer: David McCaw
