{"id":84385,"date":"2022-06-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/?p=84385"},"modified":"2026-01-23T12:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:58:21","slug":"musical-friendships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/musical-friendships\/","title":{"rendered":"Musical Friendships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers<\/em>, Henry David Thoreau described friendship:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey cherish each other\u2019s hopes. They are kind to each other\u2019s dreams.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much beautiful music has come to the world through the mutual encouragement of friends. In this post, we will explore some historic friendships in classical music, when great artists were kind to each other\u2019s dreams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abe<\/strong>l<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Johann Christian Bach, portrait (1776) by Thomas Gainsborough. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Carl Friedrich Abel, portrait (c. 1777) by Thomas Gainsborough. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Johann Christian Bach<\/a> (1735-1782) was the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach<\/a> and his second wife Anna Magdalena W\u00fclken<\/a>. J.C. Bach had a lot <\/em>of older brothers and sisters, but as a young person he also found time to make friends with Carl Friedrich Abel<\/a> (1723-1787). Carl\u2019s father, Christian Ferdinand Abel<\/a>, worked with J.S. Bach at the court of Anhalt-C\u00f6then. The fathers were such good friends that J.S. Bach was godfather to C.F. Abel\u2019s daughter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When J.C. Bach moved to London to write opera in 1762, he found his friend Carl Friedrich Abel already established there as a bass viol player. In 1764 the two became roommates, and soon they teamed up professionally as well: in 1765 they began a concert series that became known as the Bach-Abel Concerts<\/a>. Public, ticketed concerts were still a new idea at the time: in the 18th century, most professional music happened at aristocratic courts, opera houses, or places of worship. Bach and Abel shared the duties of directing and performing their series of ten to fifteen concerts each year. The Bach-Abel Concerts were so successful that they continued until 1781. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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