Duo Morat-Fergo

The Swiss-Danish guitar duo Morat-Fergo was founded by classical guitarists Raoul Morat and Christian Fergo in 2014. They studied together at the music academy of Lucerne with German Echo-Prize winner Frank Bungarten. In just a few short years they have created a new repertoire of romantic music through their arrangements for guitar duo and established themselves as one of the most exceptional guitar duos to emerge in recent years.
Their mutual captivation of Franz Schubert’s music inspired them to start the duo to perform the masterpieces by the Austrian composer. The duo’s arrangement of Schubert’s Moments Musicaux op. 94 reveals new sound aspects and interpretative shades to the music. In January 2015 they premiered the work in Lucerne, which prompted an outstanding reception.
The ‘grande dame’ of the piano, Elisabeth Leonskaja, commented after hearing the duo: ‘Recently I experienced a magical moment of music. Two fi ne musicians – Christian Fergo and Raoul Morat – playing Schubert on two guitars. I felt transformed back to the time of Schubert and thought I was hearing pianos from his epoch. A moment full of magical sounds.’ To explore the original sound of the nineteenth century in greater depth, the duo plays copies of romantic Viennese guitars from the time of Schubert.
Their high artistic level combined with strong individual musical personalities has proven to be an exciting combination. Christian and Raoul have performed both as a duo and as soloists in many countries across Europe, including Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Ireland and China. The duo’s own arrangement of Schubert’s monumental song cycle Winterreise for voice and guitar duo was premiered with German tenor Julian Prégardien to great acclaim in February 2016. That year they also performed Schubertreise, a work especially written for the duo by Irish composer Martin O’Leary.
Further music partners have included: bass René Perler, tenor Georg Poplutz, and cellists Mattia Zappa (Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich) and Sebastian Diezig (Lucerne Symphony Orchestra).