The Maltzan Collection is a trove of manuscripts made up of thirty for the most part unknown works for viola da gamba in the holdings of the library of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Twenty-eight of the works are by Carl Friedrich Abel - including a number of autographs - and one each by Johann Christian Bach and Andreas Lidl. The manuscripts were copied between 1759 and 1789 in England, and purchased there by the then Prussian envoy in London, Count Joachim Carl Maltzan, who brought them back with him to Militsch, Silesia (today Milicz, Poland). In 1945 the manuscripts came into the possession of the library in Poznan. The collection was discovered in 2016 by Sonia Wronkowska, who is also the editor of the ten-volume edition of all the previously unknown works from this collection.
The viola da gamba sonatas by Abel in the Maltzan Collection are musically mature pieces that throw a new light on Abel's compositional artistry. For the most part, they pose greater challenges for the player than the previously known sonatas from Abel's time in London. The fast movements are more expansive; the range extends from AA to b"; there are movements with variations and polyphonic passages; unusual keys, such as A-flat Major and E Major, are to be found; and many a slow movement contains a cadenza from Abel's hand.
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