The classical guitar is an instrument capable of both great percussive force and delicate nuance; at home both in the roar of folk-tinged romantic music and the understated sophistication of chamber music.

Regardless of style, however, it remains one of classical music’s quieter instruments. Even with the technique of a powerhouse guitarist, it can struggle to compete with louder instruments, and can easily get lost in a large venue.

It was therefore singularly impressive that, at the Adelaide Guitar Festival’s Winter Warm Up in Elder Hall, each ensemble managed to fill the room with sound, with a wide variety of both technical means and emotional ends.

The first ensemble, the 2024 Adelaide Guitar Festival Orchestra, fought against the reverberance of Elder Hall with the strength of sheer numbers. Under the direction of Queensland guitarist and educator Paul Svoboda, nearly 60 guitarists (all emerging talents of various ages) took to the stage to deliver a wonderfully varied repertoire that had been workshopped extensively over the course of the week through the festival’s Winter School.

The ensemble’s work under the tutelage of Slava Grigoryan (the festival’s artistic director), Giuseppe Zangari and Andras Tuske was evident from the beginning, with a driving rendition of the Queen hit “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. The guitarists were divided into three sections, with Svoboda’s arrangement giving each their moment to shine as melodists and their moment to shimmer as accompanists.

The size of the orchestra helped to create a wonderful ambience. This was most evident in Svoboda’s composition “Raindrops on Bingil”, which began with a whisperingly quiet outline of impressionist harmonies, gradually swelling into a doleful melody and a strikingly powerful climax. The thinness of each individual instrument was subsumed into the soft-edged warmth of the ensemble’s combined sound.

The orchestra finished their set with a traditional Irish tune, “The Green Glens of Gweedore”. Once again arranged by Svoboda, it captured the fullness of an Irish folk ensemble very pleasantly.

The first half of the evening was then rounded out by two shorter performances.

Jane Rutter and Giuseppe Zangari perform at the Adelaide Guitar Festival Winter Warm Up. Photo: Kyahm Ross

The first of these was from the South Australian Youth Guitar Ensemble (SAYGE), which, under the direction of Caleb Lavery-Brook, played two vivacious dance tunes: “Merengue” (composed by Richard Charlton) and “Rumba Flamenca” (composed by Gareth Koch, arranged by Charlton).

Then the Elder Conservatorium Guitar Ensemble, under the direction of Oliver Fartach-Naini, premiered a composition by Carl Crossin entitled “Movin’ Right Along”. This piece was a wonderful combination of classical and folk music, with the intricacy of a chamber composition balanced ingeniously against subtle blues inflections. Even with a much smaller number of performers, the ensemble projected brilliantly without losing any of the composition’s details.

After the interval, the celebrated duo of flautist Jane Rutter and guitarist Giuseppe Zangari took to the stage to perform “Italian, French & Hispanic Pieces for Flute and Guitar”. The pair played very effectively against the size of the room, and managed to deliver the intimacy of a chamber performance in a concert environment.

Their program, consisting mostly of shorter pieces, was widely varied, but found unity in a devotion to melody. In particular, Rutter spoke at length about the inspiration the duo found in the bel canto vocal tradition, and this was consistently exemplified in their treatment of a number of familiar vocal melodies.

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Throughout selections such as Luigi Arditi’s “Il Bacio” and Jean-Paul-Égide Martini’s “Plaisir d’Amour”, Zangari and Rutter focused intensely on their presentation of each melody, with Rutter capturing both the diligent exactitude of a highly-trained classical vocalist, as well as the joyful exuberance of an amateur singer. Zangari’s deft strumming and fluid arpeggiation was delivered with restraint – one could not ask for a more secure accompanist, or a more supportive duo partner.

Juxtapositions of this kind permeated this pair’s performance. Intriguingly, Rutter was sharp and clear-cut in her articulation, sitting atop Zangari’s exquisitely mellow tone. Although this might seem to work against the tendencies of their respective instruments, it did not feel unnatural, and allowed Rutter’s melody to soar over Zangari’s accompaniment.

The duo finished with a performance of Jacques Ibert’s “Entr’acte”, which allowed them to interact in a more conventional fashion, continually swapping from melodist to accompanist and back again with admirable fluidity. It was a triumphant end to a concert that should most certainly have audiences “warmed up” for the 2024 Adelaide Guitar Festival later this year.

Adelaide Guitar Festival’s Winter Warm Up concert was presented at Elder Hall on July 19. The festival itself will take place from September 12-29.

Edmund Black, a pianist and recent graduate from the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide, is the 5th recipient of the Helpmann Academy InReview Mentorship. He is working with Graham Strahle to write a series of articles for publication in InReview.