Review: PACO LARA QUARTET: DUENDE – ADELAIDE GUITAR FESTIVAL 2023 at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Sunday 16th July 2023.

Paco Lara’s Quartet is made up of top Australian Flamenco artists, his wife, Deya, dancing, Byron Mark, on piano and percussion, and singer, Angela Rosero. He added his own voice to a couple of the pieces, too. He moved from Jerez, in Andalusia, to Sydney in 2017 and has established himself as an ambassador for Flamenco here in Australia. Duende is the title of his latest album, from which the music was taken for this event.

The evening was filled with wonderful music, sometimes just solo guitar, and other tunes variously augmented by one or more of the others. None of the pieces of music was named and, perhaps, that didn’t really matter, unless one wanted to refer to and discuss each tune. A critic’s job is not always easy. Some were his own compositions, and others were by well-established composers. There was, of course, the instantly recognisable theme from the Adagio second movement of Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concerto de Aranjuez.

The concert began with a slow, introspective piece, full of passion, building in intensity, and setting the mood for the evening. Byron Mark then joined him in the next piece, initially at the grand piano, before moving to an electronic keyboard, cajon, and cymbals.

Complex rhythms, and the use of polyrhythms, are important aspects of Flamenco. These came from the guitar (Toque), of course, and the cajon, but also from the clapping of the singer, and the feet of the dancer. The dancing (Baile) is about more than just the sound of the shoes rapping on the floor, The entire body is involved, right down to the movements of the fingers, conveying emotional intensity, telling a story The singing (Cante) is, likewise, filled with emotion.

As the concert progressed, the enormous variations found within the Flamenco tradition were explored, each piece introducing other ideas and variations, hinting at the history and development of the form. Sadly, it was all over too soon, and the audience showed its enthusiasm for what had been presented, applauding the performers loudly. Then, there was a surprise.

I am sure that nobody in the audience could have predicted that the encore would have been a reinterpreted version of Waltzing Matilda.

This was Paco Lara’s second visit to the Guitar Festival, and I am sure he’ll be back again soon.

Photography, Claudio Raschella.