Search - Karl Kaiser, Michael Schneider, Rainer Zipperling :: Carl Friedrich Abel: Chamber Music

Charming Chamber Compositions

Daniel G. Berk | West Bloomfield, Michigan | 10/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Abel was a close friend of the painter, Thomas Gainsborough. Today, Gainsborough is well-remembered as a painter, but Abel is all but forgotten as a composer. That is indeed unfortunate, for his compositions, such as the six presented on this CD, are worthy of being heard and being enjoyed. It has long been my belief that there is a significant number of composers whose works are underservedly ignored. Abel is such a composer, and this CD is an appropriate vehicle to help lift him from that obscurity."

Enthralling Melodiousness

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 10/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Carl Friedrich Abel (1723 - 1787), Chamber Music. Performed by members of La Stagione, Frankfurt. Recorded at St. Michael's Church, Michaelshoven, Germany in January 1993. Total time: 61'08". cpo 999 209-2.



Carl Friedrich Abel is one of a number of highly interesting musicians from the second half of the eighteenth century. Their works were unfortunately soon eclipsed by the fame of Viennese classics, but the German specialist label cpo has been doing a marvelous job of making some of them available again in excellent productions on period instruments. Abel was the son of a member of Johann Sebastian Bach's orchestra at Köthen; as a young man he became viola da gamba player and cellist at Dresden under Hasse; and in the turbulences of the Seven Years War he fled via France to London, where he soon teamed up with Bach's youngest son Johann Christian to organise a series of concerts which became known all over Europe. Abel played viola da gamba, cello and harpsichord at these concerts, and it appears that a good deal of music from his own compositional workshop was performed there (symphonies, flute concertos).



The chamber music on this recording was, as the notes point out, not intended primarily for public performance. Abel appears to have written it out of pure joie de vivre, probably for his own use. The style is post-baroque, the main characteristics being mellifluous melodies and a lightness bordering on the naive. This CD contains two sonatas for transverse flute and harpsichord and two trios for two flutes and basso continuo, all four of which are very pleasing to the ear; but, for me, the highlights are definitely the seven short pieces for viola da gamba solo played brilliantly by Rainer Zipperling (just listen to that "Arpeggio"!) and the delightful Sonata for violoncello and basso continuo which concludes the program. This is, of course, not the "serious" music our modern ears have come to expect (cp. the folksy Allegretto of the Trio in G Major!), but I found myself enthralled simply by the melodiousness and grace of it all, enhanced by the lovely acoustics of this recording (cpo's engineers seldom disappoint). Anyone willing to explore the second half of the 18th century should find an hour's superb entertainment here!"