Abel: Music For Flute & Strings - Georgia Browne, Nordic Affect (2012)

×

Abel: Music For Flute & Strings - Georgia Browne, Nordic Affect (2012)

Close

Although Carl Friedrich Abel (1723–87) is known as one of the last and greatest virtuosos of the viola da gamba, his instrument declined in popularity towards the end of the 18th century, leading him to compose for other instruments; some of his most successful results can be heard in the music recorded on this disc. Abel’s ability to compose particularly fine music for the flute can be traced back his time working at the Dresden court, which possessed one of the greatest orchestras of the era .Among the musicians working there were the flautists Buffardin and Quantz - the latter a prolific composer of flute concertos and sonatas for Frederick the Great, a notable patron of the arts. It is likely that Abel himself was a skilled flautist, and the instrument’s popularity at the time created a great demand for new compositions. The works featured on this disc are less well known than Abel’s music for viola da gamba, and are performed less often. However, they provide an insight into 18th century music’s transition from Baroque complexity to the melody-driven Classical style, and are illuminated through performances by flute soloist Georgia Browne and the ensemble Nordic Affect, specialists in historical performance.

Composer: Karl Friedrich Abel
Performer: Georgia Browne
Orchestra/Ensemble: Nordic Affect

Reviews: Let us consider the history of Carl Friedrich Abel (1723–87), one of the more inspiring Horatio Alger stories of the German Baroque. He was born the son of the noted gambist and cellist Christian Friedrich Abel, who himself was a colleague and friend of Sebastian Bach from the time the latter was Kapellmeister in Köthen. The Abel family had long been associated with Bach, and when Carl Friedrich’s sister Sophie Charlotte was born, none other than Sebastian Bach stood as godfather. Abel senior died suddenly in 1737, and Sebastian Bach and his second wife, Anna Magdalena, did not hesitate to adopt the 14-year-old Carl Friedrich and his younger sister, even though there were by now upwards of 10 children in the Bach household, including the toddler Johann Christian, who would later become Abel’s friend and collaborator in London. Carl Friedrich quickly gained proficiency on the cello and gamba (he obviously picked the right foster family), and by 1747 was granted a position in the Dresden court orchestra, playing under the renowned Hasse.


Various external influences, chief among them the Seven Years’ War, combined with Abel’s growing ambitions as a composer to cause him to seek broader horizons, and by 1759 he was established in London, where he networked with a surprisingly large number of noted musicians. The most notable of these was the flutist Johann Baptist Wendling, the dedicatee of Abel’s works for flute, and coincidently also the favorite flutist of Mozart. By 1763 Johann Christian Bach had arrived in London and was sharing a house with Abel. Together they would found the Wednesday Evening Concerts, later renamed the Bach-Abel Concerts, which for nearly two decades was the most talked-about concert series in London and attracted touring virtuosos from all over Europe.


Abel’s music meshes completely with the late 18th-century English galant style familiar from the works of Christian Bach, Thomas Augustine Arne, William Boyce, John Stanley, and others. Openness of texture, easy, uncomplicated harmonies, and lightness of melody are the hallmarks of the English galant ; there is little of the Sturm und Drang in evidence, such as you might find in contemporary German and Austrian music. Favored solo instruments were the flute and violin; orchestral scoring in the concertos is mostly strings and basso continuo. Abel was not as adventurous in his orchestral writing as his friend Johann Christian; the latter usually added winds in pairs, including two horns, to his scores.


Nordic Affect is a newly formed period-instrument ensemble based in Iceland; the personnel consists of two violins, viola, cello, violone, theorbo, and harpsichord. Australian flutist Georgia Browne bears the brunt of the work here; she is a thoroughly cultivated, highly capable flutist with a lovely tone. The ensemble work is pert and polished, although I do hear a bit of glare from the violins at times. Nicely recorded and generously filled, this CD is an excellent introduction to the congenial music of Abel.