This is the first of three concerts featuring Biber’s fifteen Mystery Sonatas played by Ariadne Daskalakis and her Köln Ensemble of harpsichord, gamba and theorbo. The fifteen Mysteries trace the story of Jesus as told in the Gospels. The five Joyful Sonatas take the story from the Annunciation to his Finding in the Temple. Biber was the outstanding European violinist of his time and he wrote music that no-one but he could play. As an added complication each Sonata is in a different tuning thus creating a pause between each Sonata. To cover this the Festival has commissioned the poet Ruth Padel to write texts for the space between Sonatas.