Lucile Boulanger - Bach & Abel: Solo (2022)

This is Lucile Boulanger’s first solo recital. The French gambist, universally praised for her natural and moving playing – BBC Music Magazine even described her as ‘the Jacqueline du Pré of the viola da gamba’ – juxtaposes Bach with Carl Friedrich Abel, a great master of the bass viol and a close friend of the Bach family. Although Johann Sebastian never wrote for solo viola da gamba, we know that he transcribed many of his works for other instruments. So Lucile Boulanger has chosen, for example, to transcribe three dances from the Sixth Suite, ‘because it sounds particularly good on the viol, being written for five-stringed cello (a step towards the six or seven strings of the viol?). It is in D, the viol key par excellence, and its style, already somewhat galant , is reminiscent of Abel. . . . This album gives me the opportunity to showcase the viol as both a melodic instrument – with the grain of the bow, the fragility of tone – and a polyphonic one.’

1. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 846: Prelude (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (1:45)
2. Bach: Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: Allemande (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (8:38)
3. Bach: Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: Courante (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (4:01)
4. Bach: Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: Sarabande (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (5:23)
5. Bach: Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: Gavottes (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (4:06)
6. Bach: Gigue (After Abel's Allegro in A Major, WK 212) (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (2:09)
7. Abel: Adagio in D Minor, WK 209 (4:20)
8. Abel:[Andante] in D Minor, WK 206 (2:06)
9. Abel: Allegro in D Minor, WK 207 (5:26)
10. Bach: Prelude in C Minor for Lute, BWV 999 (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (1:50)
11. Bach: Bourée Angloise for the Flute, BWV 1013 (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (3:13)
12. Abel:[Arpeggio] in D Minor, WK 205 (2:35)
13. Abel:[Moderato] in D Minor, WK 208 (5:47)
14. Abel: Allegro in D Major, WK 186 (3:29)
15. Abel: Fugue in D Major, WK 196 (2:32)
16. Abel:[Adagio] in D Major, WK 187 (3:58)
17. Abel: Minuet in D Major, WK 200 (3:02)
18. Abel: Vivace in D Major, WK 190 (3:59)
19. Bach: Grave for the Keyboard or Violin, BWV 964/1003 (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (5:22)
20. Bach: Fuga for the Lute or Violin, BWV 1000/1001 (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (6:41)
21. Bach: Siciliana for the Violin, BWV 1001 (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (3:28)
22. Bach: Allegro for the Violin, BWV 1003 (Transcription for Bass Viol by Lucile Boulanger) (6:52)