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Anna Kowalska
studied lute with Toyohiko Satoh and Nigel North at the Royal
Concervatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. Having been educated as a
classical guitarist as well, Anna has covered a vast repertoire from the
Renaissance to late Baroque including 19th century repertoire for
historical guitar. Her solo programs include mostly works of French and
German baroque lute composers such Gaultier, Du Fault, Gallot,
Weichenberger, Weiss. Anna pays great attention to solo works of J.S.
Bach, including her own transcriptions for baroque lute of sonatas and
partitas for solo violin and an unaccompanied cello. As a continuo
player she recently worked with Emma Kirkby, Teodor Kurentsis, Wladyslaw
Klosiewicz and Tytus Wojnowicz (harpsicord and oboe, Poland), Marek
Toporowski (harpsichord, “Concerto Polacco”, Poland), Anna Mikolajczyk
(soprano, Poland), Nazar Kozhuhar (“The Pocket symphony”, Russia),
Anatoly Grindenko and Viktor Sobolenko (viola da gamba, Russia). Anna is
currently concentrating on the lute and baroque guitar as both a soloist
and continuo player. Searching for genuine sounding of the of the works
of J.S. Bach and S.L. Weiss, Anna recently combines her interpretation
with the use of unique technology, playing on purely gut strung
instrument as was used in the time of the Baroque.
Anton Birula has studied the lute with Prof.
Toyohiko Satoh at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague and with
Prof. Konrad Junghaenel at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne. With his
concentration on the extant solo literature for the Baroque lute Anton
Birula has performed numerous lute recitals featuring music of J.S.Bach,
S.L. Weiss and French lutenists. His special interests were
transcriptions of J.S. Bach suites for solo cello and violin sonatas and
partitas for the Baroque lute. As a theorbo player Anton Birula has
performed a vast amount of musical literature with numerous ensembles,
specializing in vocal music by 17th century Italian and English
composers and the viola da gamba music of Marin Marais and Antoine
Forqueray. His fascination by french viola da gamba music led him to
close cooperation with the Russian gambist Victor Sobolenko. In the year
2001 they recorded a CD with works of Marin Marais with theorbo as the
only continuo instrument.
Anton has worked with such important soloists as Wladyslaw Klosiewicz (harpsichord),Nigel
Kennedy (violin), Emma Kirkby (soprano), Marek Toporowski (harpsichord),
Olga Paiecznik (soprano).
During his long engagement at the Warsaw Chamber Opera Anton has
participated in the performances of all works of Claudio Monteverdi as
well as operas by Pieri, Caccini, Landi, Scarlatti.
As an ensemble Anna and Anton have come together to
attract attention to the long neglected duo repertoire for the Baroque
lute duo. United by a mutual fascination they wanted to help shed light
upon music which was written during the final twilight hours of the
lute's bright history. They were the first to perform and record the
recently discovered duet compositions of Francois du Fault and
transcriptions of the Marin Marais' duet viola da gamba compositions for
two baroque lutes. This resulted in a program «Baroque Lute Duets" which
was released on CD in 2002. Later they started to work on duo repertoire
for other combinations of historical plucked instruments, especially
baroque guitar and theorbo. Showcasing the contrasting styles of
different cultures, the program "Musical voyage across 17-th century
Europe" moves us from solemn music of great Italian lute and theorbo
players (Allessandro Piccinini and Girolamo Kapsberger) to the
temperamental style of the first Spanish guitar virtuosi (Gaspar Sanz
and Santiago de Murcia) and melancholic mood of French baroque masters
(Robert de Visee and Francois Couperin).
Recent activity of the duo concerns the music of J. S. Bach. Vast
project covers solo works for lute including lute versions of solo
violin and cello compositions as well as transcriptions of other
instrumental works of the master for two 24 string Baroque lutes. In the
year 2004 they have formed a trio “La luth Enchantee” with the flutist
Marion Ferme, working purely on works by J.S. Bach exploring the
sonorous combination of recorder with plucked continuo.
Anna and Anton successfully presented these programs for different TV
and Radio Programs and at international Music Festivals: Festival der
Laute (Dresden, Germany), Music and Architecture (Torun, Poland),
International Festival of Chamber Music (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), The 7-th
Art Salon (Sofia, Bulgaria), XII Early Music Festival (Krakow, Poland),
Bach en Combrailles festival, (France), Lute day of the Dutch lute
Society (The Netherlands), Bach Day (Ghent, Belgium), Lute day of the
Belgian lute society (Brussel, Belgium), Pazaislis music festival
(Lithuania). www.luteduo.com
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