Description
This CD presents in Giuseppe Clemente Dall'Abaco's fine cello sonatas and cello duos, a world premiere recording of works that offer a remarkable range of technical demands and musical variety.
Son of a famous composer from Verona, Giuseppe Clemente Dall'Abaco learned to play the cello as a young boy growing up in Munich, Germany at about the same time that Bach wrote his famous cello suites. A few years later, in 1729, Dall'Abaco found his first employment as a cellist, in Bonn at the court of the Elector of Cologne, and began a fascinating musical career that led him to prominence in London, Paris, Vienna, and other European musical centres.
Elinor Frey is a leading Canadian-American cellist, gambist, and researcher. Her albums on the Belgian label Passacaille and Canadian label Analekta – many of which are world premiere recordings – are the fruit of long collaborations with artists and scholars such as Suzie LeBlanc, Marc Vanscheeuwijck, and Lorenzo Ghielmi, as well as with composers including Maxime McKinley, Linda Catlin Smith, Christian Mason, and Lisa Streich. Elinor's 2020 recording of cello sonatas by Giuseppe Clemente Dall'Abaco (PAS1069) received a Diapason d'Or and her critical editions of Dall'Abaco's cello music is published in collaboration with Walhall Editions.
Elinor holds degrees from McGill, Mannes, and Juilliard. She teaches early cello and performance practice at McGill University and the Université de Montréal and is a Visiting Fellow in Music (2020–2023) at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Frey was awarded Québec's Opus Prize for "Performer of the Year" in 2021.