Review: JOSEPH TAWADROS WITH SPECIAL GUEST CONNOR WHYTE – ADELAIDE GUITAR FESTIVAL 2023 at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw Friday 14th  July 2023.

The Guitar Festival has served up what my football-loving mates would call a game in two halves, with Joseph Tawadros and Connor Whyte. Connor Whyte, the first Australian guitarist to win the Festival competition a year ago, presented a very traditional program, displaying his dexterity and musicality. He started with a Chaconne by Pachelbel, in his own arrangement, and continued by playing some unfamiliar works by familiar composers in the history of the guitar. Sor’s Variations on a Theme from Mozart’s Magic Flute, a fertile source for guitar composers, was followed by the Mazurka Appassionata of Barrios, and Rodrigo’s Invocation and Dance. He finished with a Bach prelude, from his award-winning recital last year, a tribute to the Guitar Festival and his own excellent playing. He thanked Jim Redgate for his instrument, pleased with the matt finish to the surface, explaining that last year the glossy surface of the guitar he played reflected the stage lights into the face of a member of the audience.

After the interval, we took our seats. Joseph Tawadros came on stage. In a red hat, red scarf, red shoes, and wickedly pointed moustache, he wrestled with the power cords while taking his seat. He presents as a storyteller from the 1001 Arabian Nights, and speaks with a strong Australian accent. He is, for most Australians, the embodiment of the oud and its traditions.

He apologized for being a little jetlagged, having flown into Australia a few days previously, and having done one show in Sydney en route to the Guitar Festival

In between his passionate playing of the oud repertoire, he tells stories. As a migrant of Egyptian origin, he takes advantage of Australia’s ‘pay it forward racism’ by looking down on new arrivals the way he and his family were regarded when they first arrived. He jokes “This concert is supported by Pauline Hanson. One Oud, One Nation”.

His repertoire for the evening drew on pieces from his twenty CDs, the latest of which was released to time with the concert. The piece I recognized was Permission to Evaporate, which he has performed with orchestras and other musicians around the world.

Whatever the unfamiliarity of the pieces might have been, the passion and precision of his playing was unmistakable. He is a consummate entertainer, and while he loves telling stories his motto is that the stories are one thing but the music is the other and the most important.