EVOCACION

I do not always choose to struggle with difficulties and play my full potential. I make my pieces difficult whenever I please, according to my disposition and that of my audience. It is in this concise manner that Carl Friedrich Abel characterized his performance skills, which in the life of the composer were widely recognized as a unique phenomenon. The album by Krzysztof Firius, Anna Firius, and Tomasz Pokrzywinski includes selected ABBA gambic works from the recently discovered Maltzan book collection, made public by the Polish musicologist Sonia Wronkowska.

Classical Music

The era of the viola da gamba had already largely come to an end with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's early classical period, but the composer nevertheless dedicated three wonderful sonatas to this instrument. The fortepiano, which is used for the accompaniment (and also appears as the obbligato instrument in the Sonata in G minor), was only at the beginning of its great development. Bach's sonatas are complemented by two works by his contemporary Carl Friedrich Abels, who is regarded as the last virtuoso of the viola da gamba. The combination of viola da gamba and fortepiano offers a marvellous charm and does justice to the rich nuances of this music between the baroque and classical periods. The sensitive interpretation by Rebeka Rusó and Sebastian Wienand further enhances the appeal of this remarkable music.

McCartney's tried it; Costello, too. So have Sting, Peter Gabriel, and even Bernstein. But a maverick California composer named Mark Abel has created what may be the most elegant and persuasive attempt yet to marry classical and rock. So get ready for a unique and powerful listening experience. The Dream Gallery is an evocative, sophisticated and hard-hitting cycle of songs for soloists and chamber orchestra that explores the inner lives, struggles, illusions and home turf of 7 archetypal Californians. Uncover a new strain in American art song.

"On these three unique art song cycles, composer Mark Abel combines hard‐hitting lyrics and a unique musical fusion of rock and classical. Outstanding performances from world‐class West Coast artists – Jamie Chamberlin, soprano; Ariel Pisturino, soprano; Victoria Kirsch, piano. ""Abel is as good a poet as he is a musician. … I think that anyone who is interested in modern vocal music will want to own this disc."" - Fanfare, on “The Dream Gallery”."

This outstanding new release, Home Is a Harbor, is Mark Abel’s first opera. In addition to the opera in three acts, this two-disc set includes the composer’s newest song cycle, The Palm Trees Are Restless, set to poems by Kate Gale. The Palm Trees are Restless is performed beautifully by Grammy-winning soprano Hila Pittman, who is known for her work with contemporary composers such as her husband, Eric Whitacre. A key character in the opera is a veteran of the Afghanistan war. Because of this, Delos will donate a portion of this album’s sales revenue to various Veterans’ organizations, starting with American Legion Cathay Post No. 384.

Reviews:

“Looking over the cast bios (for "Home Is a Harbor"), one is struck by the fact that nearly all the participants in this project are California-based, making the point very clearly that (the state) has become an important cultural hub in the country, and Mr. Abel is at the forefront of its musical life.

The opera deals with young twin sisters who set out on their post-high school lives in different directions … ; both find disillusionment and sadness, only to return home in a third act which offers hope for the future ... But the ultra-optimistic ending does not destroy the effectiveness of the piece. It is ... filled with characters and situations that remind us all too well of the realities of our world.

All the singers do a fine job; I would not be surprised to read some of their names on the rosters of major opera companies. The two sopranos who sing the twins Lisa and Laurie, Jamie Chamberlin and Ariel Pisturino, create very believable young women with their well-supported sopranos. Best of the lot is Babatunde Akinboboye, whose rich baritone demands special notice from the listener. As with many modern operas, the vocal line is not typical of romantic opera. But it is tonal and effective in conveying the drama of the situation.” - Richard Sininger, American Record Guide

“Abel is as good a poet as he is a musician. (...) anyone who is interested in modern vocal music will want to own this disc.” - Maria Nockin, Fanfare Magazine

“It's more than just a nice story set in a town that San Luis Obispo County locals will appreciate, for Abel Home is a Harbor speaks to where we are as a country today and where we could go.” - Ryah Cooley, New Times San Luis Obispo

In this spellbinding new album, Abel gives sensitive listeners food for thought, stimulates the ear with his signature fusion of classical, rock, and jazz, and makes you feel, with his gut-grabbing epressions of potent emotion. Grammy-winning soprano Hila Plitmann brings her full emotional range to three Abel works, including “Those Who Loved Medusa,” – a powerful story and evocative musical setting that connects ancient Greek legend with our present day’s “Me Too” movement. “In the Rear-View Mirror Now” resonates with anyone reflecting upon life’s myriad twists and turns from past to present. Warmth fills “The Ocean of Forgiveness” cycle sung by mezzo-soprano Janelle DeStefano. The affecting “Benediction” expresses a range of profound emotion as it laments tragic elements in our society while offering heartfelt wishes for our future. This is hard-hitting music and text that stimulates the ear, intellect, and emotions, retaining Abel’s trademark lyricism while demonstrating a remarkable degree of prescience in pinpointing effects of long-standing societal flaws.

The music in this album sings and dances, in Abel’s “colorful blend of styles that serve the emotional nature of each work to bracing and poignant effect” (Gramophone). It further clarifies why Abel is “one of the most interesting figures in American contemporary music” (Pizzicato). Composer Mark Abel has been based in California for the past three decades. Abel’s idiom eludes easy pigeon-holing. It includes chamber music and vocal works, whose contours extend from art song to larger forms with orchestra to a 103-minute chamber opera, Home Is a Harbor. This is Mark’s fifth release on Delos. The incomparable David Shifrin begins the program with Intuition’s Dance, a combination of frolic and dreamy ruminations in which he is joined by pianist Carol Rosenberger. (This is the first time Shifrin and Rosenberger have recorded together since their memorable albums in 1984!) Next comes the remarkable Hila Plitmann singing the powerfully moving Four Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva — the first-ever setting of Tsvetaeva’s poetry in English translation. She is joined by Rosenberger and English hornist Sarah Beck. Colorful and haunting, The Elastic Hours are brought to life with virtuosity by Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker and Dominic Cheli. This is Sabrina’s first Delos recording since her success with the Brahms Hungarian Dances in 2018 (DE 3558). In the richly lyrical Clarinet Trio, Shifrin and Rosenberger are joined by Fred Sherry for a musical journey beginning with “The Unfolding,” moving to “Taking Flight,” and finally ending with a peaceful and tender “In Good Time.”

Includes work(s) for viola da gamba by Karl Friedrich Abel. Soloist: Rainer Zipperling.

Sigiswald Kuijken is one of the most important pioneers of the early music scene and celebrates his 80th birthday on 16 February 2024. Throughout his life as a musician, he has looked far beyond "classical violin playing". Even as a student, he explored baroque playing techniques on the violin and developed a milestone in historical violin playing without a support or chin rest, with the instrument resting freely on his shoulder. He learnt to play the viola da gamba at a young age as a self-taught musician. In 2004, he first advocated the revival of the violoncello da spalla – and played the shoulder cello, which was the actual basso continuo instrument in the Baroque period and was completely forgotten in the course of history. As a university teacher, Sigiswald Kuijken has influenced generations of musicians and recorded countless discs himself. To mark his anniversary, he presents himself and his audience with a very personal recording and introduces "his three instruments" – the violin, the viola da gamba and the violoncello da spalla – with selected unaccompanied solo works. The compositions are by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Thomas Baltzar, Diego Ortiz, Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Sebastian Bach. As a "personal treat", Kuijken also plays the Allemande from Bach's 2nd Cello Suite in ornamented form on the clavichord, just as Johann Sebastian himself probably presented his solo suites at home in his day.

Exquisite Delight awaits the listener on Viktor Töpelmann’s new solo album with viol music by Carl Friedrich Abel, Franz Xaver Hammer und Andreas Lidl. Virtuoso Allegros, sentimental Adagios and dancing Minuets come to life in Viktor Töpelmann’s interpretation of sonatas and solo music from this last bloom of viol music in the late 18th century. He plays an original bass viol by Barak Norman (London 1722) and he is accompanied by the cellist Gerhart Darmstadt.

Awarded a Diapason Découverte, André Lislevand’s debut album Forqueray Unchained (Arcana A486, 2021) celebrated one of moments of greatest splendor for the viola da gamba: that of the ancien régime in France. In this repertoire, the young musician proved to be "absolutely on top of his game and not afraid to explore the extremes of his instrument’s aesthetic world, though without ever losing touch with le bon goût" (Early Music Review). The same youthful freshness and energy can be found in his second album, though here he explores the German repertoire of the central decades of the 18th century, a period that witnessed the gradual decline of the instrument, but was still capable of expressing unexpected treasures and developing an idiom that often seems to anticipate the years to come.

In the program are sonatas for gamba and basso continuo (C.P.E. Bach’s WQ 136 and C.F. Abel’s B93 in A minor), Telemann's Fantasia XI for solo viol, two pieces by Abel from the Drexel Manuscript, and finally, the lesser-known Suite BWV 1025 by J.S. Bach, presented here in a version for viola da gamba and concertante lute. Also featured and playing a vital role in this project are the Duncumb brothers, two extraordinary chamber musicians: Emil on the fortepiano and Jadran, who played on the debut album, on the lute.

It is a constant source of amazement that to this very day, musical gems even by famous composers often fail to receive the exposure they deserve or have even – despite modern digital access – been unjustly consigned to oblivion. The four works by Carl Friedrich Abel presented here are just such treasures, and two of them – the Sinfonie Concertanti WKO 42 and 43 – are released on record for the very first time to mark the composer’s tercentenary in 2023. The reason for this is surely that Abel’s activity and fame as a viola da gambist and as a composer for his instrument has obscured the fact that he wrote these four important concertante works for the violoncello. The present recording seeks to help restore the reputation that these works deserve.

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) was born in Köthen, a small German city, where his father, Christian Ferdinand Abel, had worked for years as the principal viola da gamba and cello player in the court orchestra. In 1723 Abel senior became director of the orchestra, when the previous director, Johann Sebastian Bach, moved to Leipzig. The young Abel later boarded at St. Thomas School, Leipzig, where he was taught by Bach. 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. After that he went to England and became chamber-musician to Queen Charlotte. In 1762, Johann Christian Bach, the eleventh son of J.S. Bach, joined him in London, and the friendship between him and Abel led, in 1764 or 1765, to the establishment of the famous Bach-Abel concerts, England's first subscription concerts. In those concerts, many celebrated guest artists appeared, and many works of Haydn received their first English performance. Abel was one of the last and greatest virtuosos on the viola da gamba, an instrument whose popularity quickly declined towards the end of the 18th century. This new recording presents The Six Sonatas for viola da gamba and B.C., written to attract enthusiastic amateurs of relatively modest ability: pleasing and attractive music, indulging in charming cantabile melodies. Marco Casonato is one of Italy’s foremost players of the viola da gamba. His discography includes Dowland’s Lachrimae (for Brilliant Classics), Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo and Monteverdi’s Vespers (Glossa). He plays a copy of a Jacob Steiner six-stringed viol. “As one of the best professional players in Italy on the lute and theorbo.’ Jakob Lindberg.” Massimo Marchese plays the theorbo, he successfully recorded for Brilliant Classics works by Joachim van den Hove and De Visée.