Let me say from the
outset that this is a fantastic disc!
It should be heard by anyone who isn’t
prejudiced against mixing genres, playing
"arrangements", having fun.
So what is this? Cross-over? Any record
covering both Bartók and Deep
Purple could with some justification
be labelled "cross-over",
but to me it is something else. ‘Cross-over’
implies that there are borders to cross,
and these four eminent musicians see
no borders; this is border-less music.
Maybe the guitar is the instrument that
lends itself most easily to building
bridges between genres, styles and times,
especially when played as on this disc.
Here are four of Australia’s best classical
guitarists, all of them with important
solo careers, but the first thing to
notice, in the very first track, is
that we don’t hear four individuals
playing as it were together; we hear
a guitar quartet, we hear unanimity
in rhythmic feeling, in the approach
to to the music, we hear musicians listening
to each other.
The sound is great,
the placing of the instruments in the
stereo image is exact and they blend
marvellously. Of course you hear that
the unseen artists behind and between
your speakers are classically trained
but the effect is of a highly professional
popgroup playing acoustically for once
– and enjoying it.
Very important, and
very imaginative, is the use of a whole
array of different guitars, thus finding
new and unique colours for each piece
of music. Besides the "normal"
classical guitar, we hear flamenco guitar,
baritone guitar, eight-string guitar,
octave guitar and steel-string guitar.
We even hear a resonator guitar, used
mainly in blues music, once even played
with so called ‘bottleneck’ technique
which gives an uncanny likeness to the
Hawaii guitar.
There is tremendous
rhythmic zest in Juan Martín’s
Rumba Nostálgica,
which also lends its name to the whole
collection. I haven’t been so captivated,
so spellbound by a piece of "light
music" for many a good day. And
make no mistake: I don’t take "light
music" lightly. This is playing
on the same level as the world’s finest
string quartets, the same flexible interplay,
the same "eye-contact". Must
play it again, Sam!
Then Piazzolla’s
Romance del Diablo, which is
not really as devilish as the title
makes us believe, rather impressionistically
colourful with a surprisingly modern-sounding
ballad-tune. The tango rhythm is there,
as in all his music, but not for dancing,
which it is in Roland Dyens’ Tango
en Skai, an attractively laid-back
piece with a catchy tune and sudden
rhythmic accents.
When they continue
with Bartók’s well-known
Romanian Folk Dances, originally
set for the piano and later orchestrated
by the composer, it strikes me that
guitars sound much more genuin in this
music, are closer to the idiom. The
arrangements here – all the arrangements
are by the members of the quartet –
as in the rest of the programme, are
colourful and observant to the character
of each piece. You even imagine there
is a cimbalom present, and the sixth
and final dance ends ecstatically.
The Celtic music tradition
is also highlighted, both in a couple
of standard traditional songs, rubbing
shoulders with Bill Whelan’s latter-day
Riverdance-compositions. Especially
the first of them holds on to the ecstacy
created in Bartók, becoming even
more physical with steel-stringed guitar,
heaps of percussive effects and stomping
feet. My whole listening room was rocking
afterwards.
There is also a World
Premiere Recording on the disc, a suite
by Nigel Westlake entitled Six
Fish, and there is a suitable amount
of splashes and other fishy sounds in
these colourful waters, housing such
rare specimens as Guitarfish, Sunfish
and Sling-Jaw Wrasse.
Finally rock fans will
receive their share in Deep Purple’s
Highway Star. And why just rock
fans? In spite of a very modest interest
in rock music I enjoyed this track enormously
as one more example of border-less contemporary
music.
The booklet text –
as always with ABC filled with interesting
information – tells me that SAFFIRE
– The Australian Guitar Quartet, got
together more or less as an ad hoc
group in 2002 for an outdoor concert
and after that decided to become a permanent
ensemble. They released their first
CD in June 2003 and it went straight
to the top of the Australian Classical
Music Charts. I see no reason why the
new disc shouldn’t go the same way.
I have no hesitation in recommending
it to all, except perhaps the most narrow-minded,
and even you should give it a try. If
there were something like "The
Border-less Recording of the Month"
I would appoint this disc to that title.
Göran Forsling
Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet (Antony
Field, Slava Grigoryan, Karin Schaupp, Gareth
Koch). 
