The backdrop of sailboats on Sydney Harbour through the Utzon Room window on this sunny spring afternoon was the perfect complement to the joyful sound of four classical musicians at the top of their game performing three substantial but very different works.

The Australian Guitar Quartet – the Grigoryan brothers Slava and Leonard, Andrew Blanch and Vladimir Gorbach – launched itself early last year with concerts in Sydney and Melbourne following on from three years of playing together and perfecting their seamless, telepathic ensemble work.

That concert garnered five-star reviews and for this more intimate show they start the program with their arrangement of JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, the original setting for violas and cellos given a mood lift by the ringing tone of 24 guitar strings being played with impeccable finesse and precision.

Australian Guitar Quartet. Photo supplied

The opening movement has a more joyful quality than we are used to and so cohesive is the counterpoint, with its smooth rapid runs and controlled trills, that it is hard to know who is doing what without intently watching the four sets of scurrying fingers.

Slava takes the lead for the lovely Adagio, playing high up the fretboard of his Altamira guitar while Leonard and Gorbach provide the trills and ornaments over Blanch’s strolling bass.

The pendulum-like swing of the final movement brings this uplifting arrangement to a close with the audience joining in Slava’s frequent foot taps.

Australian composer Nigel Westlake, best known for his soundtracks for the Babe movies, started out as a clarinetist, but he knows a lot about the guitar, having worked with the great John Williams with his band Attica.

Six Fish guitar quartet was originally written for Saffire – which featured Slava Grigoryan, Karin Schaupp, Anthony Field and Gareth Koch – but was recently reworked and renamed The Book of Fish for the AGQ in memory of US guitar legend Ralph Towner who collaborated with Slava.

The six short pieces are dedicated to endangered species found in the waters off Tasmania – maugean skate, swan galaxias, spiny porpoise, pot-bellied seahorse, red handfish and threefin blenny. Only the names have been changed from the original – you still get the groove of the heavy metal groove of the Sling-Jaw Wrasse the gravity-defying rush of Flying Fish.

The highlight of the group’s debut concert at Sydney’s City Recital Hall in February came in the second half with the Australian premiere of US jazz guitar guru Pat Metheney’s six movement classical quartet Journey to the Sun. It made an enormous impression then and the chance to get a second hearing up close and personal was a special treat.

Over half an hour Metheney exploits the full gamut of guitar effects with strong melodies and an extraordinary array of rhythms, textures and colours using influences from jazz and blues, samba and minimalism.