For many years the Grigoryan Brothers (Leonard and Slava) have forged a stellar international career, leading the way in the breadth and depth of their creativity and achievement in the “classical guitar world”. Tonight was the national “inaugural” launch of a substantial and new musical program with fellow international award winning team members Vladimir Gorbach and Andrew Blanch. An exciting 2025 touring program will include performing in the Cordoba Guitar Festival in Southern Spain in July, an event considered to be one of the most important guitar festivals in the world.
Astor Piazzolla’s music always brings a wealth of opportunity for musicians to share the real colours and spirit of the Argentinian dance form. Fuga y Misterio, from his 1968 Operita (little opera), is an instrumental piece truly combining contrapuntal classical techniques and tango and jazz based rhythms, with percussive flair and flavours. Piazzolla famously said, “My music smells of tango” and we too were given the warmth of Buenos Aires in a fresh and very beautiful arrangement. Flowing and almost étude-like, some introductory hand slaps on the body of the guitar added just a whiff of the dance, the seamless teamwork and blend of four guitars in harmonious flight being just a small taste of introduction and warm-up on this summer’s night.
A fine balance of new arrangements and appealing popular works will always be central to a program for a showcase occasion. J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 transcribes so beautifully to four magnificently hand-crafted instruments, with Lenny’s 7-string guitar adding an extra depth and harmonic foundation, and so perfectly able to provide a strong walking bass line. The audience was breathless throughout, absorbing the hypnotic rhythmic flow, the clarity of each melodic entry and weaving of solo lines between blended accompaniment with very nicely timed and beautifully shaped final cadences. Not just technically impressive in Allegro movements 1 and 3, the expression of a variety of emotions and tone colour, from mellowness, flowing and gentle lyricism to percussive grandeur, excitement and brightness, showed perfect ensemble and synergy. All superlatives have probably been used on these musicians before – this was superb playing.
The well-known Suite from Carmen is always sheer delight – familiar, exciting, sensual and passionate. The guitar connects us to the enduring passion and nostalgia of Flamenco and Andalusian traditions, the centuries of gypsy folklore and the romance and tragedy of Bizet’s opera. With AGQ it allowed a range of flamenco strumming techniques: added spontaneous percussive clapping and guitar slapping punctuation, the technique picado – chopping the strings with the fingers at high speeds – crisp plucking and vibrant percussive action, sultry dampening of strings. With improvisation and dazzling tremolos all mimicking the emotional flamenco songline, a smooth acceleration in the final Gypsy Dance was an exciting end to the first “half”.
With a second half offering unfamiliar repertoire – a première performance and contemporary works – some audience members would have preferred good old black print on good old white informative program notes as the glossy darkly coloured card folder was a challenge to most eyes. Returning to the stage, Slava G spoke of his huge admiration for musician and composer Pat Metheny, his progressive journeys into all styles of music, and his inspiring creativity – well beyond descriptions of “fusion” and “crossover”. Metheny’s Road To The Sun, written especially for the Guitar Quartet, was indeed new in design, loosely described as six sections, a complicated soundscape with many colours and interesting short motifs with themes developing and changing through shifting tempos and expanded jazz harmony. There were fine virtuosic unison sections and a firm 5-time flow above strong walking bass patterns giving a certain certainty. Non-conventional sound effects with players scraping cards on strings near the bridge added to the story, before themes and complex rhythms grew with unpredictable accented off-beats. A surprising final section was like a romantic torch song, a sad vocalise resolving with beauty and colourful angelic chords.
Next came a familiar melody: Luiz Bonfá’s popular hit Manhã de Carnaval (known often as the theme from the film Black Orpheus). It was given a distinctly new shape and colour with altered chords and spacious orchestration, slow, gentle melodic improvisation and sensual shades of purple.
Brazilian classical guitarist Paulo Bellinati wrote the final work on the program, A Furiosa (1999), as a tribute to the virtuosic and talented street musicians of Brazil. This was party-time – experimental, creative, and time to break speed records as single note patterns were repeated with excitement and passed around each player, and Brazilian dance rhythms infiltrated the growing virtuosity required. A fine close to a substantial program, but the audience applause and appetites grew, calling this magnificent quartet back for an encore.
Familiar soft semi-pizzicato string chords signalled Pachelbel’s Canon, which journeyed rapidly through changing “variations” of genres and moods – from classical, pop, jazz, blues, atmospheric cool jazz, and a country hoe-down, with an acceleration into a speedy étude with runaway cadenzas as Pachelbel flew across the world. A surprise to all, but well loved indeed. Australia can be very proud of the Australian Guitar Quartet.
Photo credit: Glen Wilkie
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Julie McErlain reviewed: “Bach, Bossa and Beyond”, presented by the Australian Guitar Quartet at the Melbourne Recital Centre on February 11, 2025.
