11 Solo caprices for violoncello - dall`Abaco - Kristin von der Goltz

11 Solo caprices for violoncello
11 caprices pour violoncelle solo

Joseph-Marie-Clément dall´Abaco (1710 - 1805)

Kristin von der Goltz - violoncello  (Leopold Widhalm, Nürnberg 1785)


After her first CD with sonatas by Jakob Klein, Kristin von der Goltz has again turned her attention to an unknown master. Only little is known about the cello virtuoso Joseph-Marie-Clément dall’Abaco (1710-1805). He played as a court musician in the ensemble of the electoral chapel at Bonn, was appointed Director of Chamber Music there, and later celebrated as a virtuoso on numerous concert tours, including to London and Vienna. Highly esteemed as an instrumentalist all his life, his reputation as a composer was soon forgotten. Just how unjustified this was it shown by the eleven solo Caprices recorded here. Eccentric harmonic turns, self-indulgent sequences, and casually syncopated rhythms reflect dall’Abaco’s imaginativeness.

After two hundred years of obscurity, the solo Caprices have been now reworked on the basis of a copyist’s copy and awakened to new life by Kristin von der Goltz. The sensitive world premiere recording is based on the only surviving source of the solo Caprices in the Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Milano.