For the Record, Op. 340: Rachel Podger 'Just Biber'; Lucia Micarelli

July 4, 2025, 3:24 PM · Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening! Click on the highlighted links to obtain each album or learn more about the artists.

Baroque violinist Rachel Podger.

Just Biber
Rachel Podger, violin and musical director
Brecon Baroque

The 17th-century Baroque composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber is the subject of violinist Rachel Podger's new album - with its slightly cheeky title tipping a hat to the Canadian pop singer and phenom Justin Bieber. (If you are confused, see this helpful chart...) Following up on her recording of the 17th century Baroque composer's Rosary Sonatas, Podger leads Brecon Baroque in an album of sonatas from Biber's 1681 collection "Sonatæ Violino Solo" and his theatrical "Sonata Representivo." These works are extremely virtuosic, with extensive multiple stopping and dazzling passages of stylus fantasticus. In Biber’s time, harmony had a mystical character, thought of as resonance between human, instrumental and celestial bodies. Dedicated to Archbishop Maximilian Gandolf, the sonatas were not only designed to delight, but also potentially to heal: Biber described them as a kind of prayer for the Archbishop’s longevity and good health. BELOW: Biber: Sonata No.1 in A major, C 138: I.

Trailer for the album:

Anthropology
Lucia Micarelli, violinist, vocalist, and composer/arranger

Violinist Lucia Micarelli was born in Queens to a Korean mother and Italian father. After making her debut with the Honolulu Symphony at age 6, she entered Juilliard Pre-College studying with Dorothy DeLay and later Pinchas Zukerman at the Manhattan School of Music. It was only during her rigorous conservatory training that, through friends and colleagues who gigged around the city, she would become exposed to other genres, which eventually led her to international tours with Josh Groban, Chris Botti, Jethro Tull, and Barbra Streisand. "Anthropology" is an eclectic, multi-genre album that works as both a fascinating treatise on the historical and technical connections between folk and classical music, and simply as a terrific listen. BELOW: "Rustem," music from the lautari (traditional musicians) of Clejani, Romania.

If you have a new recording you would like us to consider for inclusion in our "For the Record" feature, please e-mail Editor Laurie Niles. Be sure to include the name of your album, a link to it and a short description of what it includes.

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