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• Gem of an ensemble Gem of an ensemble July 2 2003 By Jessica Nicholas There aren't many virtuoso musical ensembles that can claim an audience of orang-utans and giraffes for their debut performance. But then, the members of Saffire didn't suspect that their first meeting (at Sydney's Taronga Zoo) would lead to the formation of Australia's newest and most prestigious guitar quartet. New South Wales-based guitarist Gareth Koch was asked to organise a guitar program for two outdoor shows at the zoo in early 2002. He invited three artists - all highly-respected soloists like himself - to share the concert billing, but instead of presenting individual pieces, they collaborated as an ensemble. It was a risk that paid off, resulting in the creation of what is now being called an Australian guitar "dream team" of Koch, Antony Field, Karin Schaupp and Slava Grigoryan. With instrumentalists of this calibre, such a collaboration was always going to be ripe with potential. But the musicians themselves admit to feeling some trepidation in the lead-up to their first rehearsal. Although the four were obviously familiar with one another's work, they had never played with one another before. "We'd actually played against one another," says Grigoryan with a laugh. "When you're all doing individual things as artists, you rarely cross paths. Even if you're at the same festival, you'll be walking off stage as the other person walks on. So there's very little communication." "We really didn't know whether we'd be compatible," says Schaupp. "But in these kinds of situations you know straight away - within a few minutes - if it's working. It's either there or it's not. And I don't think it's something you can artificially create. You can rehearse a lot and work really hard, and obviously we've done that. We've really dedicated ourselves to the process. But the initial gelling is something you can't force." Grigoryan agrees. "Even in those first rehearsals, it was clear to us that this could become an ongoing relationship, so we all put our hearts into it completely," he says. "Everything we do - every project, every gig - is important for us. We're really treating this as a serious ensemble with long-term aspirations." Both Schaupp and Grigoryan are keen to dispel any notion that Saffire is an ephemeral or superficial project put together to exploit the members' strong profiles as individual artists. As Grigoryan points out, all four guitarists are so busy, they certainly don't need another project just to fill in gaps in their schedules. On the contrary, it has taken a concerted effort by the group's members to coordinate their schedules to allow them to play together. With Grigoryan and Field based in Melbourne, Schaupp in Brisbane and Koch in the Hunter Valley, quite apart from each player's national and international touring commitments, the group has to book intensive rehearsal and performance "blocks" up to a year in advance. On a purely musical level, making four guitars sound like one is not exactly a walk in the park, either. "You can sit down with another guitarist and just play through something, and it can sound quite nice in a very carefree kind of way," says Grigoryan. "But the challenges involved in actually playing serious music together are just ridiculous. "For example, the attack on each note on a guitar is very short. It's not like using a bow, where you can kind of glide into a note. With guitars, it happens in a millisecond - and it's obvious to any ear if you're not playing together." Schaupp adds: "Every player has a slightly different attack, and every guitar has a slightly different response. So it really is a huge challenge making something like this work." Judging by the quartet's debut CD, it's a challenge the group has met head-on, with an exquisite recording of contemporary Australian and British compositions alongside Spanish and Latin-flavoured pieces by Granados, Maximo Diego Pujol and Koch. The four-guitar sound is uncluttered and often extraordinarily subtle, but there's also a sense of the excitement and sheer pleasure generated among the group's members. "Having done so much solo playing, it's really nice for us to be working as a group," says Schaupp. "It's wonderful to be able to push boundaries when you're playing, to express something very deeply, and know that the others will be with you. That's something you can really only do when you have people at this level to work with." Saffire performs on Friday at Frankston's Performing Arts Centre (book on 9784 1060), and on Saturday, at Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre (book on 136 100).
• Dream team delivers golden treat Dream team delivers golden treat July 9 2003 By Jessica Nicholas Picture: CATHRYN TREMAIN On fire: Saffire. MUSIC: SAFFIRE Athenaeum Theatre July 5 When musicians with strong individual profiles collaborate as an ensemble, the result can be an awkward collision of styles and personalities where the players remain trapped in separate spheres of energy. Happily, this is not the case with Saffire, a high-powered "dream team" of four Australian guitarists - Gareth Koch, Karin Schaupp, Antony Field and Slava Grigoryan - who, as well as being exceptionally talented, demonstrate an impressive willingness to sublimate their individual egos for the greater good of the ensemble. Not that there's any sense of these players shrinking themselves in order to work together. In fact, there's a wonderful expansiveness about their rapport - a sense of naturalness and ease that belies the difficulties involved in synchronising 26 strings and four distinct musical minds. While other guitar quartets tend to feature different members of the guitar "family", the members of Saffire all play standard classical guitars (with Koch on 8-string guitar to add body in the lower end of their collective register). This allows the four musicians to exchange roles and parts from piece to piece, avoiding the limitations of having one leader and three followers. The quartet arrived on stage at the Athenaeum Theatre on Saturday night with a minimum of fuss and began their eclectic program with Peter Maxwell Davies' Farewell to Stromness. Grises Y Soles, Maximo Diego Pujol's tribute to his native Buenos Aires, effectively captured the purposeful stride of a proud porteno, with haughty tango passages accentuated by percussive effects from all four players. Philip Houghton's Opals evoked the semi-precious stones of the title with flashes of colour and gleaming and intricate ripples, while Kurt Weill's Ballad of Mack the Knife was filled with an almost carnivalesque sense of whimsy and charm. The group worked with such extraordinary co-ordination that they seem to be guided by an invisible conductor. Actually, their split-second timing relied on eye contact, body movement and intuition, along with a commitment to excellence that was evident in every flawless phrase. Perhaps most importantly, the enjoyment these four derive from one another's company imbued the music with vitality as well as virtuosity; passion as well as precision. Their enjoyment spilled off the stage and into the audience, too, making this - Saffire's debut Melbourne performance - an immensely satisfying and pleasurable experience.