Andrey Lebedev In Recital + Sydney Guitar Trio With Rory O’Donoghue: Adelaide International Guitar Festival Review

Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre, Fri Jul 18 Andrey Lebedev, guitar in hand, arrives on his home-town stage and greets the audience quietly and warmly. After a few words of introduction, he begins. The first piece, J.S. Bach’s Violin Partita in D minor, is positively beautiful. Lebedev plays the five movements with an assuredness that belies his relative youth. The movements offer changes to pace and feel throughout, and all are expressed with appropriate emotion and dexterity. This is an almost perfect example of the guitar being a genuine voice at the forefront of classical music. The second piece is something a little more modern. In The Woods, by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu provides increased light and shade, allows for a little more space between the notes, and features some melodic harmonic playing. This is quite a different piece to the first, yet every bit as impressive. Lebedev concludes his recital with Isaac Albeniz’ vibrant Torre Bermeja, perhaps acknowledging the somewhat Spanish flavour of this year’s Adelaide International Guitar Festival. The entire performance is marvellous. Lebedev demonstrates his capability and roundedness in the presentation of these three pieces, and leaves the audience eager to hear more. The second half of the concert features the Sydney Guitar Trio with Rory O’Donoghue, as they present an hour or so of what is more or less musical storytelling. They present four different types of tale. The first, an abridged version of The Divine Guitar, takes Dante Alighieri’s words and pairs them with Richard Charlton’s arrangement; one that focuses on providing a soundscape to the story. The next piece is Alice In Wonderland, where segments of Lewis Carroll’s famous text are supported by Claude Gagnon’s score. Throughout these two pieces, the interplay between the three guitars as they strive to provide a soundtrack, in addition to providing the sound effects, is quite brilliant. The last two pieces take the audience into more traditional, but no less impressive, musical territory. Geebung, where Banjo Paterson’s words meet Charlton’s music, is a slice of Australian wit. The world premiere of Spike! sees Charlton’s arrangements augment four children’s poems that could only have come from the incredible mind of British/Irish genius Spike Milligan. It is a quirky and uplifting way to end the afternoon’s proceedings O’Donoghue’s narration throughout the performance is fabulous. He switches between characters effortlessly, and seems to find the perfect voice and expression for each. This concert of two contrasting halves has managed to provide a solid, fluent afternoon’s entertainment for those present. Bravo! by David Robinson