Two talented young musicians founded this unique duo in 2005 in Weimar during their studies at the Hochschule fur Musik im. F.Liszt. Since then, they have played over 100 concerts throughout Europe, including Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland, and Sweden. Each of the artists has many individual successes in auditions and music competitions. As a cello-guitar duo, they have received many scholarships and awards, including the Finnish Minister of Culture Award in 2013 and 2011, the Madetoja Foundation scholarship (2013), the LUSES Foundation scholarship (2012), and the SKR Cultural Foundation scholarship in 2012 and 2014.
Despite focusing mainly on finding original pieces for this unusual duo in forgotten 19th-century music since 2012, they have collaborated and continue to collaborate with many composers from around the world. Through this collaboration, they have commissioned new works from prominent contemporary composers such as Dusan Bogdanovic, Ronald Pearl, Pertti Jalava, Juha Leinonen, and Paula Ptach-Dembska. This collaboration has resulted in many wonderful new compositions that are regularly performed by the duo during numerous concerts. Their latest collaboration with the outstanding Serbian composer and guitarist Dusan Bogdanovic will result in a new album by the duo (2015) entirely dedicated to his compositions.
A New Chapter in 19th-century Chamber Music - Canzonetta Italiana- Original 19th-century duos for cello and guitar - the latest album by Duo Vitare
Since 2012, the Duo Vitare has been focusing on finding forgotten cello-guitar duos in 19th-century music. The inspiration for this came from the publication in spring 2012 by Chanterelle Verlag of two original cello-guitar duos from the first half of the 19th century. These previously unknown pieces were attributed (although there is no certainty) to the eminent Italian guitarist also known as the 'Paganini of the guitar' Luigi Legnani. It is worth noting that the manuscripts of the works were found in the private collection of Sepp Bacher, an Austrian guitarist - an interesting personality in the Austrian guitar world of the interwar period. Among guitarists, there was a buzz, as it turned out that the cello-guitar duo, so unpopular today, could have been quite natural in the 19th century. Unfortunately, these duos could not survive their time. They were probably lost or, as in the case of these two compositions, never published. There is also speculation about whether the discovered manuscripts were correctly attributed to Luigi Legnani. Names of composers such as Anton Diabelli or Joseph Merk are also suggested.
These newly discovered pieces have opened a new chapter in early Romantic chamber guitar music. So far, only a few pieces originally composed for this ensemble have survived. However, in almost all of these pieces, the guitar part is underdeveloped, resulting in a strong dominance of the cello. Both virtuosic duets by 'Legnani' are true chamber works where both instruments are equal partners in terms of technical and expressive aspects.
During the making of the album, we had long email conversations with Prof. Stefan Hackl - an Austrian musicologist from the Salzburg Mozarteum, who also edited both duets for the German publisher 'Chanterelle Verlag'. Together, we concluded that there is a high possibility that both duets were the result of collaboration between two outstanding instrumentalists. Of course, the main candidate for the guitarist, according to Prof. Hackl, is Luigi Legnani, while as for the cellist, the best candidate seems to be the eminent 19th-century cellist, Beethoven's favorite Joseph Merk. This great virtuoso often played in a trio with the violinist Joseph Mayseder and another outstanding guitarist of the time, Mauro Giuliani. It can be assumed that he was among the outstanding guitarists and could have also known Luigi Legnani. It is also worth noting that both musicians lived and performed frequently in Vienna.
These two pieces, and we also know about a third unpublished duet, which is currently in Prof. Hackl's hands, inspired us to further solitary searches. We found the original cello-guitar duet by Guillaume Gatayes in the collection of the Royal Library in Liege, and the beautiful melancholic duet by the German composer Adam Darr by chance on the Internet.
The album 'Canzonetta Italiana' was released in the last week of April this year. All the pieces were recorded for the first time in the world. The recording took place in the legendary S1 studio at the Lutosławski Institute in Warsaw in collaboration with the excellent sound director Ms. Ewa Guziołek-Tubelewicz. The album was released by the Finnish company Novum Art.