Anna Firlus (harpsichord), Krzysztof Firlus (viola da gamba) and Tomasz Pokrzywiński (baroque cello) perform Sonatas from the recently discovered Maltzan Collection by Carl Friedrich Abel.

New manuscripts of viola da gamba music by Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-87) have been found in Poland, in the Library of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, in a collection originating from the Maltzan family palace in Milicz (Poland). Two manuscripts, one of them partly autograph, transmit 29 pieces by Abel, or attributed to him based on unique source criticism and stylistical analysis, including 22 previously unknown.

These are valuable sources, as they show previously undocumented practices relating to Abel’s work and its transmission: the use of a fragment from the Drexel Manuscript in another composition with basso accompaniment; the manuscript records of Six Easy Sonatas (London(?), 1772(?)); the unique example of a second autograph of a work; the gamba version of a cello composition; and the only known duo for two violas da gamba. Besides copies of short, conventional sonatas in the galant style, the Maltzan collection contains some of the most complex, challenging and virtuosic sonatas written by Abel.