Cellist Elinor Frey has worked for the past many years to research, record, and publish the remarkable cello music of 18th-century virtuoso Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco. Her 2020 CD release "Dall’Abaco: Cello Sonatas" was awarded the prestigious Diapason d’Or, and her 2022 release "The Cello According to Dall’Abaco" was given a "cum laude" in Luister magazine.

Her new album celebrating Dall’Abaco’s music is one that explores the Baroque art of variation through two cello trios, performed alongside Eva Lymenstull and Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde, and three cello sonatas, joined by Michele Pasotti and Federica Bianchi. In each sonata, the final movements have a theme followed by a set of variations. Such variations give space for the composer or the performer to develop the piece further by producing interesting new gestural figures in the solo cello part while continuing to use the same bass line and its harmonies.

Sonata ABV 39 has a set of variations written by Dall’Abaco, and Sonatas ABV 20 and ABV 21 have variations written by Elinor Frey. Variation sets are typically full of virtuosic gestures and resourceful melodic creations. At the same time, the album explores the subtle variations of sound among cellos and cellists themselves.