BY CHRISTOPHER WAINWRIGHT
After a 15-year break, leading Australian guitarist Slava Grigoryan makes a welcome return to perform with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and is set to kick off a national tour this month.
The multiple ARIA award-winning guitarist has appeared as a soloist at major international festivals, performed with his brother Leonard Grigoryan across the world, and played an important role in growing the instrument’s profile as Artistic Director of the Adelaide International Guitar Festival.
Between rehearsals, we spoke with Slava about presenting Rodrigo’s much-loved Concierto de Aranjuez, the challenges and joys of working with an orchestra, and his about-to-be released ABC Classics CD of Bach Cello Suites.
Why do you think Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez has become seemingly the most programmed guitar concerto?
That’s a very good question. There are many successful elements which marry the qualities that the guitar is capable of – rhythmic energy, great lyricism – and Rodrigo managed to capture many of the wonderful Spanish elements which you can hear throughout the piece. There aren’t many other guitar concertos which do all of that so successfully.
Knowing that you have played the work for close to 20 years, how do you feel this concerto has grown with you?
I think one’s relationship to music keeps on changing and evolving. I know that I play it very differently now to what I did 20 years ago, and some of that has to do with familiarity and the rest to do with general change. I’d like to think that it is maturity, but I’m not sure, it might not be. In general, I think a lot of musicians have relationships with works that go for many years and they keep on evolving and changing. With this piece, even though I have been playing it for a long time, I actually don’t play it all that often – maybe once or twice a year. So there is enough connection to be a constant companion, but it still feels very new and fresh every time I play it.
What are the challenges of getting the guitar’s sound to carry over the orchestra?
I think you are spot on, that is something that has been a big issue over the years. Thankfully, technology is catching up. Guitars are louder and clearer in general than they were, say, 50 years ago and what they were 100 years ago. But also, amplification is wonderful most of the time. It doesn’t happen always, but in general one can amplify very justly and the guitar can be just above the orchestra when it is done really well. It can also be done very directly as well, so that it looks like the sound is coming from where the guitarist is positioned on the stage.
What is a particular joy of working with the Australian Chamber Orchestra?
It really is one of the best chamber orchestras in the world. There’s no doubt about it, they are incredibly skillful musicians that are at the top of their field and they have a fantastic energy and spirit. It’s very hard to hear in many instances with orchestras. It’s always an absolute pleasure to be working with them. It’s been many years since I have worked with them. The last tour I had with them was in 2000 which was part of the Olympics Arts Festival when the games were in Sydney, and prior to that I toured the Rodrigo concerto with them in 1997. It was the last time I played this piece with them. It is almost 20 years, but it doesn’t feel like it, it’s been quite a while.
You are about to release a recording of the Bach Cello Suites on ABC Classics. What inspired you to make the recording?
It’s been a project that I really wanted to do for a long time and haven’t had the headspace or time to get around to it. It all started when I bought a baritone guitar years ago. A baritone guitar is tuned down a fifth below a regular classical guitar. The moment I played it, I thought of the Bach Cello Suites and wanted to see what I could do with them on this instrument. The sonority, the attack and the sustain on the note is totally different to a regular guitar.
The next few years, I dabbled with them when I could, and I realised I could play all of the Cello Suites in the original key. It’s a huge difference; there have been guitar transcriptions of the Cello Suites, they’ve all been transposed to other keys and the sustain of a normal guitar makes it hard to carry of the Cello Suites in their original format – you have to add notes to it. From my perspective, the purity and the mystery that is implied with the original Cello Suites is gone, so I was really happy to realise that this actually does work on the baritone and it’s also a beautiful instrument made by Jim Redgate.
I’m not aware of a baritone guitar being used for a classical recording of any kind before and it was something that I’m very proud of. I hope more people will start playing these instruments, as they sound beautiful. It’s a long time in coming, it’s the first solo album in 15 years.
What would be your best advice for a conservatorium student about to embark on a freelance musical career?
I think the best advice that I could possibly give is to really try to stay true to yourself as one possibly can be. Follow your heart and focus on things that you truly love as a player and a listener. Music is all about connecting with an audience and it’s all about storytelling. For instrumentalists, it is difficult, because we don’t have words or voices to use – it is all about storytelling and it needs to be clear that it comes from the heart. If you want to connect with audiences, it needs to come from the heart. You really need to listen to a lot of music; try to absorb as much of the language as possible to figure out where your career fits.
Slava Grigoryan will perform with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane from October 30 to November 7. For details visit the website. In early November, ABC Classics will release Slava’s first CD of Bach’s Cello Suites.
Image supplied. Credit: Simon Shiff.
