Variationen Ber Ein Zahlentheoretisches Thema Von Carl Friedrich Gauss

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) was born in Köthen, a small German city, where his father, played viola da gamba and cello in the court orchestra. In 1723 Abel senior became director of the orchestra, when the previous director, Johann Sebastian Bach, moved to Leipzig. That the young Abel later attended the Leipzig Thomasschule and was taught there by Bach is not finally confirmed. What is known, however, is that he joined Johann Adolph Hasse's court orchestra in Dresden on Bach's recommendation in 1748, where he remained for nine years. On Bach's recommendation in 1748 he was able to join Johann Adolph Hasse's court orchestra at Dresden, where he remained for fifteen years.

The recently rediscovered, so-called Pembroke collection owned by the Abel-pupil Lady Elizabeth Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery (1737-1831), contains 14 previously unknown viol works (ten sonatas and four duos for viola da gamba and cello) by Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-87), which he composed for himself and his talented pupil. Specifically, these expressive pieces are late works that show Abel’s special way of playing. For Coviello, viola da gambist Thomas Fritzsch presents the world premiere recording of these musical jewels.

Karl Fasch, the son of the famous Kapellmeister of the court of Zerbst, Johann Friedrich Fasch, was harpsichordist at the Prussian court from 1756 until his death. Underemployed by Friedrich II and underestimated by musicologists, he has been forgotten for a long time. Philippe Grisvard is preparing to rectify this injustice with a program consisting of world-premiere recordings that will make it possible to discover an original and visionary composer. The Arts Desk said of Grisvard's previous release on Audax of Handel's keyboard works: 'And what Grisvard does so well is recreate what a contemporary observer described as Handel's uncommon brilliance and command of finger that amazing force and energy.

In 1764 a couple of German musicians lodged together in London. They shared a sort of common background, for one was the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, newly arrived in town to write opera, and the other, Carl Friedrich Abel, had been Bach’s student back in Leipzig more than a decade earlier. He was in town to make his living as a composer of instrumental works and as a performer on that now-anachronistic instrument the viola da gamba. The two apparently hit it off quite well, for they soon conspired to develop the famed Bach-Abel concert series that became a fixture in the city for more than a decade and a half. Given that they also contrived to perform as well, it is not surprising that both men created a wide variety of works for their instruments, Bach on the keyboard and Abel on his gamba.

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).

Carl Friedrich Abel (b. December 22, 1723 in Cöthen) was one of the most renowned viola da gamba players of his day. It was probably for Carl's father, Christian Ferdinand Abel, that Johann Sebastian Bach composed his famous solo cello suites.
Following his education at the Thomasschule under J.S. Bach, he initially took a post under Johann Adolf Hasse in the Dresden court orchestra, and remained there for a decade before traveling to London 1759. There he met and eventually shared a room with Johann Christian Bach.