G107

C. F. Abel Two Berlin Sonatas for violoncello and bass. Introduction by Michael O'Loghlin, edited by Günter und Leonore von Zadow. Edition Güntersberg (G107), 2007 ...

Abel is generally remembered as a viol player, but these two sonatas (in G and A, WKO 147-8) are idiomatic for the cello. In the sources, they are written in score, and thus they are here published, but with two copies to avoid eyestrain. To a non-cellist, the music would seem not to be for beginners, but not impossibly difficult. The bass is unfigured, but since the MS is a score, that wouldn't preclude a keyboard accompaniment, but a second cello would seem to me to be most likely: the titles only mention cello, not the accompanying instrument. The introduction defends Abel's galant charm, with considerable justification from these pieces.

Clifford Bartlett
Early Music Review - 118 - April 2007