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The month of June and old music of the best quality: today I bring to your attention a very special album, which comprises works for the viola da gamba (the viol), signed by the Italian cellist established in Austria, Maddalena del Gobbo and the harpsichordist Ewald Donhoffer. The album is entitled Viola d'emozione, and was launched in Austria a few days ago, more precisely on 6^th June, 2014 during the Salzburg Pentecost Festival.

Handel, Telemann, Abel and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - on an album included in the 'Vote the best classical album of 2014' campaign, where I invite you to grade the records submitted in the competition.

An interesting instrument, the forefather of the viola and the cello of today, the viola da gamba came into existence in medieval Spain, in the 15^th century and was used preponderantly during the Renaissance and the Baroque. The viola da gamba was the favourite instrument of Louis XIV, and because of that, it garnered great popularity in France. Marin Marais is recognised for his compositions for the viola da gamba - and a 1991 film, Tous les matins du monde, made the work of Marin Marais and Monsieur de Sainte Colombe famous to a wider audience.

However, other composers wrote extensively for the viola da gamba - among them Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and Carl Friedrich Abel.

Music from another world on this album launched by Archiv Produktion on 6^th June, 2014, and an initiative of Universal Music Austria - it has come to my attention that the opinions of local branches of big record companies have begun to carry more and more weight in the music industry.

Music from a world where Carl Friedrich Abel was a true star, a famous virtuoso of the viola da gamba, author of numerous works for this instrument. Abel was the pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach, but also a friend of one of Bach's sons, Johann Christian Bach, during the time he was present in London.

The virtuosity in the Sonatas of Carl Friedrich Abel is brought to the fore wonderfully through Maddalena del Gobbo's interpretation in the album Viola d'emozione, for example, a Sonata whose score figures in the Drexel Collection donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at the end of the 19^th century.

Viola da gamba - an instrument we also encounter in the compositions of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, one of Johann Sebastian's sons and the godson of another great composer, Georg Philipp Telemann. This year, on 8^th March, 300 years have passed since the birth of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach; as a homage, Maddalena del Gobbo included in her Viola d'emozione album one of the two viola da gamba and harpsichord Sonatas signed by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

It is time we found out who Maddalena del Gobbo is - an Italian woman born in Udine, who first began studying piano and ballet, but soon fell in love with the viola da gamba. Precisely because she wanted to deepen her study of this instrument, Maddalena del Gobbo moved to Vienna - it happened almost twenty years ago when she was thirteen years old. She finalised her cello studies at the Vienna Conservatory, and then, her decision was taken to dedicate exclusively to the viola da gamba - and so followed the recitals, concerts and this first album in her career.

We do not often get the chance to listen to a viola da gamba album- maybe only in Jordi Savall's albums, a contemporary maestro of the instrument. So, the appearance of this young virtuoso of this instrument is more than welcome. If you wish to become better acquainted with Maddalena del Gobbo - you will have a video testimonial at your disposal.