Carl Friedrich Abel - Chamber Music
Classical | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 289 MB | RS
Recorded: 1/1993, Erzengel-Michael-Kirche, Michaelshoven
Released: 1994 | Label: cpo 999 209 | TT: 61:08
La Stagione (Karl Kaiser, Michael Schneider - transvers flute
Rainer Zipperling - viola da gamba & cello | Nicholas Selo - cello, b. c.
Harald Hoeren, Susanne Kaiser - harpsichord)

Carl Friedrich Abel [1723-1787] 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. […] 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. (Review, amazon.com)

This CD adds a previously unreleased "Intergalactic Motion" to the original five-piece program. Sun Ra's orchestra was at its most radical during this period, alternating simple chants with very outside playing and dense ensembles.

Carl Friedrich Abel - Piano Concertos op. 11
Classical | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 322 MB | RS
Recorded: 21-23 Mar. 2001, Sendesaal, Hess. Rundfunk, Frankfurt/M.
Released: 2003 | Label: cpo 999 892 | TT: 59:08
Sabine Bauer - pianoforte & harpsichord | La Stagione Frankfurt/Michael Schneider

One could easily mistake this music for C. P. E. Bach, but it’s a little less stuffy, more playful, more inventive, a bit more theatrical, but not quite as theatrical as that of J. C. Bach. One can see how people were eager to believe that Abel [1723-1787] had studied with Bach — but as he was a family friend, he most surely studied Bach, if not with Bach. Abel had met the young Mozart with his family […] After the dissolution of his London partnership Abel returned to Potsdam and enjoyed brief popular success as a gambist before his death at the age of 54. (Paul Shoemaker, www.musicweb-international.com, 2003)