Journey NOVA Guitar Duo

• Béla Bartók (1881 - 1945): Romanian Christmas Songs, Sz. 57, Series 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo)
• 1Bartók: Romanian Christmas Songs, Sz. 57, Series 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo)05:52
• Romanian Christmas Songs, Sz. 57, Series 2 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo)
• 2Bartók: Romanian Christmas Songs, Sz. 57, Series 2 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo)07:10
• Lior Navok (b. 1971): Sarigim for Guitar Duo
• 3Navok: Sarigim for Guitar Duo06:31
• Leoš Janáček (1845 - 1928): On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo):
• 4Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): I. Our Evenings03:44
• 5Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): II. A Blown-Away Leaf03:34
• 6Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): III. Come Along with Us01:30
• 7Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): IV. The Madonna of Frydek03:39
• 8Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): V. They Chattered Like Swallows02:51
• 9Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): VII. Words Fail02:12
• 10Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): VII. Good Night!03:39
• 11Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): VIII. Unutterable Anguish04:00
• 12Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): IX. In Tears03:40
• 13Janáček: On the Overgrown Path, JW 8/17, Book 1 (Arr. N. von Alven & L. Mantovani for Guitar Duo): X. The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away!03:58
• Total Runtime52:20

Info for Journey

In Journey, our second album, we have turned our attention to the Eastern European sounds of Bartók and Janáček and beyond with a new piece written especially for us by Israeli composer Lior Navok. The programme is somewhat less exuberant than our fiery and extroverted first album, Sortilegios, from 2019. This time, we invite the listener on a contemplative journey, reconnecting with deep emotions, ancestral memories and far-away landscapes. While it looks inward from an emotional point of view, Journey also broadens the expressive limits of our ensemble, showcasing a repertoire that may already be familiar to music lovers but is presented here for the first time in guitar duo arrangements. (Nelly & Luiz)

Nova Guitar Duo

NOVA Guitar Duo
A winner of the Pro Musicis International Award (New York, 2001), Luiz Mantovani has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in some of the most important concert venues of his native Brazil and abroad. His performance of Walton’s Five Bagatelles in Weill Hall/Carnegie Hall was described by The New York Times as “powerful, beautifully shaped and just practically flawless”. In 2010, he premiered Israeli composer Lior Navok’s Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra with the Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva.

Highlights of current and past seasons include performances at Salle Cortot in Paris, Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Jordan Hall in Boston, Hong Kong City Hall, 92 St. Y in New York, Beethovensaal in Hanover and Sala Cecília Meireles in Rio de Janeiro, as well as live broadcasts for the National Public Radio – NPR in Boston, Washington, D.C. and Austin. As a soloist with orchestra, he has performed with the New Russia Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Petrobrás Symphony Orchestra and São Paulo Municipal Orchestra, among others.

With a repertoire spanning five centuries of music, Luiz Mantovani’s diverse programs range from his own transcriptions of early music for plucked instruments to works written for him by contemporary composers. Commissions and national/world premieres include works by American David Leisner, Israeli Lior Navok and Brazilians Ronaldo Miranda, Raul do Valle, Acácio Piedade and Liduíno Pitombeira. His first solo CD, Appassionata, was recorded in 1998 and since then he has made a number of recordings, including music for movies and in collaboration with renowned ensembles such as Boston Musica Viva.

An active chamber musician, from 2004 to 2015 Luiz was a member of the Brazilian Guitar Quartet, one of the world’s most sought-after guitar ensembles, with which he performed extensively in four continents. With them, he recorded three albums for Delos International: one featuring Isaac Albéniz’s Suite Iberia, another with works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (a 2011 Latin Grammy winner for “best classical album”), and a third one featuring works by distinguished Spanish composers, Spanish Dances. He has collaborated with Brazilian flautist Michel de Paula since the ‘90s and in 2012 their duo commissioned and premiered Brazilian Landscapes No.12 by Brazilian composer Liduíno Pitombeira at Weill Hall/Carnegie Hall in New York. In 2016 he founded the NOVA Guitar Duo with German guitarist Nelly von Alven, an ensemble that explores the unique possibilities available by combining the traditional and the 8-string guitar, also known as “Brahms-guitar”. The NOVA GUitar Duo’s debut album, Sortilegios, was released in 2019 by Stradivarius.

Luiz Mantovani holds a PhD from the Royal College of Music in London, where he investigated the chamber sonatas of Austrian composer Ferdinand Rebay. He is the first guitarist to receive the prestigious Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, also holding a Master’s degree with honours from NEC and a Bachelor’s degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His guitar teachers were David Leisner, Nicolas Barros and Antônio Guedes.

In addition to his performance career, Luiz teaches guitar and chamber music at the State University of Santa Catarina, in Florianópolis, Brazil, where his educational, performance and outreach projects have deserved local and national recognition.

Booklet for Journey