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Guitarra”, Paco Peña and the Grigoryan Brothers. At Canberra Southern Cross Club, Woden, August 16. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD.

IT is a privilege to be in a room with a musician with a total mastery of his craft. Flamenco guitarist Paco Peña is one of those musicians. At 80 years old, his hands are those of an old man, but still with all the flexibility required to entrance a room full of listeners.

Flamenco guitar is essentially an accompaniment to singers and dancers, but Peña has been at the heart of making the flamenco guitar a solo instrument for the past half century.

This concert was shared with Slava and Leonard Grigoryan, who opened with a varied set, starting with an arrangement of the well-known Arioso from “Cantata 156” by JS Bach and followed that with an arrangement of a Handel keyboard suite for two guitars, arranged by their father. Both were notable for the seamless way they swapped treble and bass parts every eight bars or so. As one moved up the fretboard, the other moved down.

A new and very modern work by Cuban composer Leo Brouwer followed these baroque gems. This was composed for the Grigoryan brothers within the last year and is a sharp, angular work that required great technical skill in execution. Not immediately attractive in some ways, but very well done.

They finished with three works from a longer suite they have written in response to various objects in the National Museum of Australia collection. They were all quite different, melodic and charming at the same time evoking the very different objects from the NMA that had inspired them. Leonard’s work on an eight-string tenor ukulele was unexpected but fitted in delightfully.

Peña opened the second half of the concert with five solo pieces, all based around different flamenco rhythms and different parts of Spain.

Flamenco guitar is essentially an improvised music built around a number of rhythmic patterns, common chord structures and playing techniques. As Peña mentioned in an introduction, a piece can be as long or as short as the player wants, or as the singer or dancer requires. It is a music that does require an immersion to fully understand what is happening, but the listener cannot help to but to be drawn into Peña’s skill and passion for what he is doing. It is a bit like hearing a lifetime of music distilled into 40 minutes or so.

The Grigoryan brothers joined Peña for a couple of pieces to finish the concert with Paco siting back and being the accompanist to some smart work by the Grigoryans. A deeply satisfying evening of music.