Les Ombres take us back to the elegant evenings of the Bach-Abel concerts in London. There is a lovely sense of conviviality to these recordings, friends making music together, and also a discreet virtuosity in some of the music. Style and elegance is to the fore, and we never feel that the viola da gamba is an 'ancient' curiosity, it is fully part of the 18th century style. But what the disc really does is...
Three years after Bach’s youngest son Johann Christian met viola da gamba virtuoso Carl Friedrich Abel in London, the two of them started up a select subscription concert society that ran from 1765 until Bach’s death in 1782. This disc by French period ensemble Les Ombres aims to recreate the type of chamber programme that the wealthy London subscribers would have been treated to, and a very engaging mix it is. [Read] ...
C'est ce que Les Ombres nous propose en nous conviant, le temps d'une écoute, dans la très select Bach Abel Society. Ce programme rend hommage à deux compositeurs amis de longue date. Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) est arrivé à Londres en 1759 ; trois ans plus tard, en 1762, Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) quittait Milan pour venir s’installer lui aussi dans la capitale anglaise. Pendant les vingt années qui suivirent, ces deux compatriotes, liés d’une étroite...
