Playing in a guitar quartet is a “very different beast” to playing as a soloist, says Andrew Blanch, who is 25 percent of the Australian Guitar Quartet. “It’s a great vehicle for guitar music, it gives you so many options,” says Blanch. “There’s no lead, as such. We’re a four-part democracy. Everything is shared around.” With fellow guitarists Vladimir Gorbach, Slava Grigoryan and Leonard Grigoryan, Blanch is rehearsing for a series of Bach, Bossa and Beyond concerts that, in effect, will launch the AGQ, beginning with performances at Melbourne Recital Centre on 11 February and Sydney’s City Recital Hall on 13 February. For Blanch, it’s an opportunity to indulge in a longstanding love of South American music – particularly that from Brazil – and for bossa nova, the guitar-based form that rose to global popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s, led by composer-guitarists such as João Gilberto, Luiz Bonfá (whose classic Manhã de Carnaval is in the AGQ’s concert program) and Baden Powell. “Like a lot of people, I came to bossa nova as a casual listener,” Blanch tells Limelight. “It’s always been the perfect dinner party music,… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month … Continue reading Australian Guitar Quartet: Putting ‘boss’ back into bossa nova