This concert was a double-bill of different guitar flavours, with classical guitarist Karin Schaupp and flamenco guitarist Andrew Veivers each offering a different perspective on the instrument. They’ve known each other since university, both having studied with Schaupp’s mother, Isolde Schaupp, and yet, remarkably, this duo recital was their first performance together.

The concert began with a mini-set from Schaupp, who gave lively and defined renditions of two sets of variations, beginning with Luis de Narváez’s Diferencias sobre ‘Guárdame las vacas’ from 1538 and continuing on through the centuries to Fernando Sor’s virtuosic 19th-century Variations on a Theme by Mozart Op. 9. Francisco Tárrega’s Capricho árabe came across rather hurried, but the following transcription of Albéniz’s Torre Bermeja was a real tour-de-force.

Next up was a survey of types of sevillanas, beginning with Veivers’ performance of his Ida y Vuelta. Obviously there’s major differences in playing styles between classical and flamenco guitar (the golpe taps on the flamenco guitar’s tap plate, the rasgueado strumming), but here also the differences in the construction of the guitar came across strongly – Veivers’ performance was crisp, percussive, and bright. Schaupp responded with a rich performance of Joaquin Turina’s Sevillana Op. 29, a fiendishly difficult piece that she brought to life with ease.

Karin Schaupp. Photo © Cybele Malinowski

Here also, though, was where sound issues cropped up. Guitars generally need some form of amplification to help them out in concert spaces, and it’s a notoriously difficult balancing act to get just right. Veivers had chosen a small, clip-on microphone that gently pushed his volume so that it was audible across the entire space, but this contrasted with Schaupp’s method, which was drenched in reverb and didn’t feel as though she was playing a mere 10 metres away.

Their first duo (a set of sevillanas, some traditional and some not, arranged by Veivers) then combined these two acoustics – Veivers a dry and close-sounding acoustic, Schaupp reverb heavy – into rather an odd sound. Still, the performances were great fun all the same, complete with Veivers’ tongue-in-cheek instructions on how to appreciate flamenco (it’s all in the “olé” shouts, it turns out).

After the interval, Veivers had his own mini-set, interspersed with some top-notch storytelling. A solea and bulerias showed off his virtuosity, while The Knife echoed the soundtrack of Paris, Texas, and a loving tribute to Portuguese bacalao was a musical and culinary delight.

Andrew Veivers. Photo supplied.

Next was a series of tangos, beginning with Schaupp playing Emilio Pujol and Veivers playing his own tangos (different from the Argentine tango), before teaming up for Albéniz’s famous Tango from Op. 165. Again, the sound was off here, with Veivers’ volume not punching through enough over Schaupp’s accompaniment.

Two rumbas, one from Veivers, and a duo reworking of Gareth Koch’s Rumba Flamenco, closed the concert with some pizzazz, before the encore saw a repeat of one of Veivers’ sevillanas arrangements.

A concert that came close to being really terrific, but one that needed some re-jigging of sounds to get a really equally matched acoustic.

Red Chair presents Karin Schaupp & Andrew Veivers at Maleny Community Centre (12 June); Coolum Civic Centre (13 June); Redland Performing Arts Centre (19 June) and Eudlo Hall on 21 June.