Wko

Featuring works by Abel, Reichardt, Zelter, Storace, Mozart and Paisiello, this album follows the musical “jet set” of the 18th century as they “do” the splendid cosmopolitan cultural epicentres of the time, including London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and St Petersburg. Exploring the intertwining stories of these leading lights as they criss-cross the European Continent, the album watches the sparks fly as they inspire each other in this period abuzz with creative fervour, international cultural exchange and mind-blowing talent. With several world-première recordings of new discoveries (Abel, Reichardt, Storace) alongside some well-loved classics, this journey features music which abounds in enlightened positivity, radiance, inventiveness, energy and inspiration.

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.