Credits:

Lysille Boulanger

Description:

Masterful Viola da Gamba Player Lucille Boulanger Breaks New Ground with Unaccompanied Album! A member of the Pygmalion, a group of talented musicians from France, a country where ancient music is at the forefront, and who has recorded all of Bach's sonatas for Alpha, viola da gamba player Lucille Boulanger is a native of ancient music, having been familiar with the gamba since childhood before cello or contrabass. This two-CD unaccompanied program combines unaccompanied works by the gamba player/composer Abel with arrangements from various Bach solo pieces. Karl Friedrich Abel, son of Christian Ferdinand Abel, Bach's business associate from his Keten days, and a London business associate of Bach's own youngest son, Johann Christian Bach, is a major composer on the gamba, but despite being a major soloist and composer, he is not a soloist. He is often regarded as one of the smallest composers of the group because he has only sporadic unaccompanied works and no major works. The program, carefully arranged "to put Arbel on an equal footing with Bach" (according to Boulanger), consisted of a small sonata section combining small pieces by this composer, and a freely arranged suite and sonata based on Bach's masterpieces for other instruments, which are surprisingly familiar to the sound of the Gamba. The core of the program is a series of suites and sonatas based on Bach's masterpieces for other instruments. Bach arranged many of his own works for various other instruments during his lifetime, and Boulanger's ability to make even the best-known pieces here sound as if they were original gumba works is a masterpiece.Abel's music, many of which are untitled works, is brought back to life with a rich charm that makes it seem as if it were written on the premise of an unaccompanied sonata. Naxos Japan