The Aroazon Duo is a Franco-Italian guitar duo formed by Apolline Lévêque and Marco Albiani. For our Siccas Media programme they recorded the Allegro Molto from the Sonata Fantasia by Dušan Bogdanović.
The duo
Their work sits deliberately in the space between tradition and the present: a repertoire that runs from classical, traditional and popular music through to modern and experimental idioms. What holds it together, by their own description, is a balance of rhythmic energy, expressive freedom and intimate musical dialogue — three qualities that a guitar duo needs in roughly equal measure.
They have won several first absolute prizes, among them the Riviera Etrusca chamber music competition and the Premio Crescendo international chamber music competition, where they additionally received the special Alvaro Company and Margherita Gallini prizes. Their concerts have taken them to venues including the Salone dei Cinquecento at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.
About Dušan Bogdanović
Dušan Bogdanović, born in Belgrade in 1955, is among the most individual voices writing for the guitar today. Guitarist and composer in equal measure, he has built a language that fuses Balkan folk tradition, jazz improvisation and Renaissance counterpoint — a synthesis he has also explored in theoretical writings on polyrhythm and polymetre. He has taught at the Geneva Conservatory and the San Francisco Conservatory.
An Allegro Molto in his hands is rarely just fast. The asymmetrical metres of Balkan music — patterns of 7/8 or 9/8 that limp rather than march — sit underneath the surface, and a duo has to lock into that groove before anything else can work. Our Bogdanović repertoire guide introduces his principal works, and our article on the Balkan Miniatures looks at the folk material he draws on.
Two guitars, one instrument
Contemporary writing for guitar duo asks something specific: the two players share a register and a timbre, so every line has to be placed with care or the texture turns opaque. In the best duo writing — Bogdanović's included — that limitation becomes the material itself, with voices crossing and exchanging roles in ways a single guitar could never manage.
Watch the Performance
Discover more ensembles in our profiles of Duo Melis and the Amadeus Guitar Duo, and browse our overview of famous classical guitar pieces.
