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Reviewer: Jerry
Dubins
The symphonies of Carl
Friedrich Abel (1723–1787) are fairly well represented on record, and on CPO,
but not his op. 1 or op. 4, and not performed by Michael Alexander Willens
and the Cologne Academy. Exactly one year ago, in 41:1, I reviewed a release
of Abel’s op. 7 Symphonies on CPO, but with Michael Schneider leading the
period instrument ensemble, La Stagione Frankfurt. With the same group,
Schneider also gave us the composer’s Six Symphonies, op. 10, reviewed by
Tom Moore in 18:1. What threw me about this new release was that CPO had
apparently switched horses mid-stream in what I assumed was an ongoing
survey of Abel’s symphonies by Schneider and La Stagione Frankfurt. But then
I realized that this was not the first time the label had featured a
different conductor and ensemble in its Abel project, for in 18:5, Nils
Anderson received CPO’s release of Abel’s op. 17 Symphonies, then with the
Hannover Band, led by Anthony Halstead. (Not to add another variable to the
mix, but even before CPO climbed on the Abel bandwagon, Chandos put out a
disc in the late 1980s of the composer’s op. 7 Symphonies with Adrian
Shepherd and his non-period-instrument Cantilena ensemble.)
By now, Carl Abel is a
relatively well-known figure. Like Handel before him, he was born in
Germany, went to England, where he was welcomed, and decided to stay. There
he hooked up with his pal, Johann Christian Bach, whom Abel had known from
his time in Leipzig, where he’d received instruction from the father, Johann
Sebastian. Together in London, Abel and Christian Bach established the
Bach-Abel subscription concerts, which presented the first English
performances of many of Haydn’s works. The enterprise enjoyed enormous
success, continuing for 17 years, until Bach died in 1782. From that point
onward, Abel entered a downward spiral of drinking and indulgent living,
leading to his own death in 1787, though at 64, one can’t say that he died
particularly young.
If Abel’s op. 7 Symphonies
seem to have garnered more attention on disc than his opp. 1, 4, 10, 14, and
17 sets, it’s no doubt due to the fact that his Symphony in E♭ Major, op.
7/6, was misattributed early on to the eight-year-old Mozart. It’s believed
that the voraciously curious child copied out Abel’s score by hand for study
purposes while visiting London in 1764.
I was a little amused by the
arrangement of the two sets of symphonies on the present release. Their
track order is reflected in the above headnote. As you can see, CPO has
programmed the works in each opus number so that they follow the same
sequence of keys: in op. 1, the Symphony No. 3 in D Major is programmed
first, but in op, 4, the corresponding D-Major Symphony is No. 6, so it’s
programmed first, and so on. What I found amusing about this was twofold:
(1) Abel frustrates the plan by skipping the key of F in the op. 4 set in
favor of a second symphony in D; and (2) it hardly matters what order you
play the works in. I daresay—forgive me—that you could even put your player
in shuffle mode, so that individual movements are scrambled throughout the
12 symphonies, and you probably wouldn’t notice a difference. There’s not a
minor-key work among the lot, and they’re all in a three-movement, basically
fast-slow-fast layout. The only exceptions are the symphonies in G Major,
op. 1/6, E♭-Major, op. 1/4, and B♭ Major, op. 4/2, each of which ends with a
Menuet, instead of an Allegro or Presto. But truth be told, Abel’s Menuets
are not much slower than or much different in character than his Allegros.
None of this is meant to
suggest that the music isn’t inventive, upbeat, spirited, and ebullient in
fast-paced movements and in the typical-of-the-period galant style in the
Andantes. It’s also well to remember that these sets of symphonies would not
have been performed end-to-end in a single concert. Recordings didn’t exist
at the time, and the idea of listening to all six symphonies in a published
opus set in one sitting would have been an alien concept to anyone living in
that era. It’s more likely that Abel’s symphonies would have been heard one
at a time, programmed perhaps with a harpsichord or fortepiano concerto by
Abel, Christian Bach, or Thomas Arne, followed maybe by a symphony by Haydn
or some other composer. There were enough native English as well as Italian
and German composers living and working in England at the time to have
supplied the Bach-Abel concerts with ample works for their programs.
I have to say that I find the
playing of the Cologne Academy on the present release ever so slightly less
polished than that of La Stagione in the set of op. 7 Symphonies I reviewed
in 41:1. I believe the makeup of the two ensembles is very close, if not
identical: two oboes, two horns, six violins, one each of viola, cello, and
double bass, and a harpsichord to play continuo.
I know I’ve sparked
controversy on this subject before, but it does strain my belief that the
Bach-Abel concerts would have drawn the audiences they did for 17 years
between 1765 and 1782 with a pocket-orchestra of this size, especially if
they were presenting symphonies by Haydn. Consider that by 1782, Haydn had
completed 78 of his 104 numbered symphonies. True, he had not yet visited
London himself, and the Salomon series of concerts were still 10 years in
the offing. But, if you look at the scores to the symphonies Haydn was
writing in the late 1760s and early 1770s—his so-called Sturm und Drang
period—that is the very timeframe in which the Bach-Abel concerts would have
been presenting Haydn’s works. There is no way that six violins, one viola,
one cello, and one double bass would have sufficed.
I do concede that Abel’s
symphonies are of far less modest ambition, and that a band the size of the
Cologne Academy could have fit the bill, especially if the hall and audience
were not large. It could be too that I don’t find Abel’s opp. 1 and 4
Symphonies to be as engaging as his previously reviewed op. 7 Symphonies,
and that might be a contributing factor in my greater enthusiasm for the op.
7 set with Schneider and La Stagione. In all fairness, I can’t really find fault with Willens or the Cologne Academy on any technical grounds. The players are in tune and free of any of the annoying habits one tends to associate with an earlier generation of period instrument performers. If there is any fault at all, it lies with Mr. Abel. I won’t go so far as to say that if you’ve heard one of these symphonies you’ve heard them all, but I will say that a little Abel goes a long way. You’ll probably enjoy these works more if you listen to them no more than two or three at a time. | ||||
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