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Abel - The Drexel Manuscript | Glossa GCD920410

Abel - The Drexel Manuscript

£14.51

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Label: Glossa

Cat No: GCD920410

Barcode: 8424562204102

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 2nd March 2009

Gramophone Editor's Choice

Contents

Artists

Paolo Pandolfo (viola da gamba)

Works

Abel, Carl Friedrich

The Drexel Manuscript

Artists

Paolo Pandolfo (viola da gamba)

About

The fame that he enjoyed in his lifetime clearly hasn't served Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) well in the two centuries since his death, at least until Hyperion’s Gramophone Award in 2008.

He was fêted all over Europe, both for his supreme skills as a performer of the viola da gamba as well as for the quality of his compositions, and was responsible (along with JC Bach) for setting up arguably the first series of subscription concerts in the history of Western music, the "Bach-Abel-Concerts". Even the prodigy that was Mozart benefited from Abel's teachings (and was claimed as the composer of one of Abel's own symphonies).

All this was known by keen minds of the time, such as Charles Burney, JF Reichardt and Goethe and fortunately also, in the 21st century, by Paolo Pandolfo, who delivers here a scintillating rendition of Abel's ever-inventive music which ranges across Preludes, Adagios and sundry other dance forms. Where to place this ‘late’ music for the viola da gamba? Not Baroque and definitely heading in the direction of the classicism of Mozart, Haydn and even Beethoven. Or as Paolo Pandolfo - who adds dabs of his own highly-advanced improvisatory skills here and there - says, "Simply put, it is Music!"

Recorded at Église de Franc-Waret, Belgium, in February 2008.

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