For this program Duo Orfeo has put together a collection of their unique arrangements of Romantic and Modern classical music for electric guitars.  Many of the pieces on this program also appear on their debut electric guitar album, I sing the body electric (2012).

Duo Orfeo is blazing a new path with their use of electric guitars in classical music, less as a tool for new, experimental music, but as a vehicle for arrangements of music from the rich and varied traditions of classical music both past and present.  The clean, undistorted tone produced by vintage electric guitars and tube amplifiers with a wash of spring reverb is stunningly gorgeous in and of itself and capable of immense subtlety, expressivity and power.  While using instruments not originally intended for classical music (a 1969 Fender Jazzmaster and ES-335 arch-top though Fender tube amplifiers) Duo Orfeo approaches these instruments in the same way they approach classical guitars, manipulating the strings with their fingers to produce all the timbral and dynamic variations needed to bring the notes to life.  There are no special effects here, just the magic of using a familiar and beloved sound in a new way.

While using non-traditional instrumentation, the music of this program presents a sound world that will be comfortable to most ears, even if some of the pieces are unfamiliar.  The program begins with Frédéric Chopin’s famous Prelude No. 15 (Raindrop), which needs no introduction.  Next there is the music which provided name of the program.  On an Overgrown Path is the title that Czech composer Leoš Janáček used for his collection of nostalgic piano miniatures composed between 1901 and 1911.  The mood of melancholy, introspection and longing conjured by this phrase is a perfect introduction to Janáček’s “remembrance of things past.”  Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s Stille Lieder or Silent Songs were originally composed for sotto voce baritone and piano in 1977.  Like the Janáček, this music is closely tied into the idea of remembrance, recalling romantic music and various Russian genres, yet in a way that is haunted and distant.  In the “Mystic Minimalism” of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, we sense a reaching back to medieval music, hearing in his simple triads and scales the bells that never stopped ringing, the chant that continues to unfurl.  Duo Orfeo has had the pleasure of communicating with Pärt about their arrangements of his music and their version of Spiegel im Spiegel was completed in collaboration with the composer.  Also featured in the second half of the program is In a Landscape, an early work by John Cage strongly influenced by the music of Eric Satie.  Selections from Satie’s Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes round out the program.  Being able to successfully adapt these timeless and enigmatically perfect pieces has been a particular joy for Duo Orfeo.

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Works to be performed on the “On an Overgrown Path” program include:

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), Prelude Op. 28, No. 15
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928), Selections from On an Overgrown Path
Eric Satie  (1866-1925), Gnossienne No. 3
Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937), Selections from Silent Songs
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935), Fratres
John Cage (1912-1992), In a Landscape
Eric Satie (1866-1925), Gymnopédie No. 1
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935), Spiegel im Spiegel