Four Flute Concertos

Abstract

Carl Friedrich Abel ( born on 22 December 1723 in kothen, died on 20 june 1787 in London) has always been assigned a role of secondary importance in music history. He has functioned as a minor character whenever it has been deemed necessary to round off biographies of Bach or Mozart with background information.Quite a few biographers and lexicographers have conjectured that Abel, a pupil at the thomasschule in Leipzig,studied with Johann Sebastian Bach.We know for certain that Abel was a gambist in the Dresden court Orchestra from 1748 to 1758 , when Johann Adolf Hasse, another recently rediscovered composer,was the court music director in Dresden. The gamba virtuoso Abel soon began to tour in concert.One of his concert tours took him to London,where he settled permanently in 1759.Abel soon began publishing his compositions and followed the practiceof the time by issuing them in sets of six. All his compositions came under the heading of instrumental music: chamber music ( trios ,solo sonatas string quartets), sysmphonies,and instrumental solo concertos for flute, piano and violoncello.