Above: (l-r) Australian Guitar Quartet – Vladimir Gorbach, Leonard Grigoryan, Andrew Blanch, Slava Grigoryan. All images: Irena Pernickova.
The inimitable and versatile sound of the classical guitar, the instantly endearing voice of the guitar quartet, plus the scintillating musicianship of four of Australia’s top guitar virtuosos rocked the City Recital Hall in AGQ’s debut at the venue: Bach, Bossa and Beyond. This is an exciting new ensemble in our landscape-three years in development, it is ready to
thrill us with total command of their instruments as well as a substantial premiere programme of original music and arrangements.
The group, including the legendary Grigoryan brothers have a strong and well-prepared brand, killer logo and an easy rapport with the ecstatic audience. They are already set for export, representing our country at the Cordóba Guitar Festival in July this year.
Australian Guitar Quintet members are: Andrew Blanch, Vladimir Gorbach, Leonard Grigoryan and Slava Grigoryan. These members’ combined experience on world stages, in recording studios, in competition and premiering new music is immense. Now they offer a nouveau string quartet model to be exploited by any interested Australian or global composer. The demonstration of what a guitar foursome is capable of.
Above: The programme, of Bach to Brazilian jazz standard, featured engaging commentary from all quartet members. Image: Irena Pernickova.
This concert brought a huge variety of rewarding moments to our eagerly anticipating ears. Beginning with a famous fugue and atmospheric fantasy from Astor Piazolla (his Fuga y Misterio, composed in 1968) the group delighted with guitar body percussion, a great flavour from the tango renovator plus an enviable contrapuntal fluidity.
AGQ then slipped seamlessly back in time to deliver an impressive transcription of JS Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concerto No 6 (1721). This presentation was a huge gear shift with regards to timbre for those familiar with the Bach sound, but in this programme it shone. The demarcation of lines, musical roles and shifts in focus across the group was riveting to both watch and hear as the three-movement work unfolded. As in the ‘Mysterio’ of Piazolla, the slow movement was a beautiful atmosphere with a penetrating, pointed melody.
This version of Bach’s final Brandenburg Concerto rocketed home with the popular third movement enjoying joyous exchanges, a solid wall of string sound as well as super secure filigree. The stunning arrangement was followed by another blockbuster and another huge stylistic shift. Bizet’s Carmen Suite saw the group, soon bound for Spain as Australian musical
ambassadors, do incredible justice to this well-known opera-highlights suite from the stage work set in Seville.
Shifts between famous solos or chorus numbers from the opera were equally successful. This quartet, rich in communicative skill both between them and to an audience, demonstrated a prized capability of playing with a wealth of nuance, that also shifts easily between moments of measured poise and ecstatic energy.
Following interval, music written for guitar quintet emerged in the programme, making us crave more performances and premieres from this new quartet of works tailor made for the guitar quartet expressive treasure trove. Paul Metheny’s epic contemplative narrative Road to the Sun (2021) served that purpose in this programme. It explored our human journeying, the sonic development possible from four guitars, and the power of new music to exist outside of musical genres or trends, and simply to offer a compelling path to follow.
Above: Communication across the quartet was a pleasure to watch, yielding fine results. Image: Irena Pernickova.
Here, AGQ members outlined that road for us with quickly established signature detail. The concert concluded with the colours of Brazil, another heritage home for the guitar, and a successful reflection plus extension of the opening Piazolla atmosphere.
Luiz Bonfá’s song Manhã de Caranaval that has graced film and enjoy so many more performance guises since the 1950s was presented with bristling edge here across the quartet.
A Furiosa (2000) by Paul Bellinati, a song that has enjoyed many recordings and performances across Europe by some of the leading guitar quartets was given exciting and elevated treatment by our own star quartet from Down Under. By way of an encore this group that had quickly won over the crowd turned the traditional European guitar quartet model on its head once more-with an eclectic bending of Pachelbel’s Canon in D major into every guitar style imaginable.
The piece signed off this debut for the promising new genre-defying quartet in admirable style, branding the group of virtuoso guitarists as fun, fully virtuosic and fit for weddings, parties, anything- anywhere. We are lucky to have them.
