Australia punches well above its weight when it comes to classical guitarists. From John Williams on, the list is impressive, with the likes of Craig Ogden, Karen Schaupp and, of course, Slava Grigoryan and his brother Leonard all achieving international recognition as soloists.

The brothers were also members of the Saffire guitar quartet whose albums won awards and topped Australian classical charts 20 years ago. Now they’ve teamed up with two other esteemed local guitarists, Andrew Blanch and Vladimir Gorbach, to form the Australian Guitar Quartet, launching their line-up with concerts, tagged Bach, Boss & Beyond, in Melbourne and Sydney.

The shows are the result of three years of playing together, putting in countless hours of practice to hone their ensemble playing – work which paid off handsomely with seamless interchanges, telepathic timing and democratic distribution of lead duties.

The Australian Guitar Quartet, City Recital Hall, Sydney. Photo © Irena Pernickova

The first half included two classical showpiece arrangements in extracts from Georges Bizet’s Carmen Suites, followed by their own take on JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. But first the AGQ needed to...