The Montenegrin Guitar Duo of Goran Krivokapić and Danijel Cerović (screenshot of their performance of BWV 812 in Montenegro)
Readers may recall that it was almost exactly a month ago when Omni on-Location released a video of the Andalusian Guitar Quartet playing three of the four movements in Manuel de Falla’s 4 Piezas españolas (four Spanish pieces). A little over half an hour ago, the latest Omni on-Location video was released, this time with a performance of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The guitarists for this video were Goran Krivokapić and Danijel Cerović, who call themselves the Montenegrin Guitar Duo.
The Bach selection was BWV 812, the first in the composer’s collection of six “French” suites. This one is in the key of D minor. My guess is that anyone familiar with Bach’s music will know what the movements are in this suite: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, a coupling of two Menuets, and the concluding Gigue. As might be guessed, the performance was filmed in Montenegro, more specifically at the Saint Nicholas’ Church in Perast.
BWV 812 is one of those suites where all of the movements are composed for three-voice polyphony. As many readers might guess, arranging that polyphony for two guitars should not be too challenging! However, what is more important is how the guitarists realize that polyphony through their arrangements. The result is that the attentive listener can readily appreciate the inventive breadth in Bach’s polyphony as well as the depth required by the two guitarists to realize that breadth. This is a video that is definitely “one for the books!”
