La Rêveuse with Benjamin Perrot (archlute) and Florence Bolton (viola da gamba) perform Adagio in D minor (Drexel manuscript) by Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787). This comes via La Rêveuse on YouTube (go subscribe). La Rêveuse is a French chamber group, founded in 2004 by lutenist Benjamin Perrot and violist Florence Bolton, that specializes in performing and recording 17th and 18th-century music.
Beautiful performance and wonderful to hear a duo of lute and viol creating such a resonant and rich texture for only two performers. He’s a small description of their album London circa 1760:
London, 1760. Handel had just died and George III acceded to the throne. During the reign of this monarch and his queen Charlotte, both discerning musicians, musical life in the British capital was to enjoy an exceptional revival. Virtuosos and composers from all over Europe flocked there, vying with each other in originality and modernity. Now La Rêveuse invites us to sample the creative whirlwind of the age, spinning from viol concertos to airs for musical glasses . . .
