Leonard and Slava Grigoryan at the Albury Botanic Gardens yesterday. Picture: MATTHEW SMITHWICK
GUITARIST brothers Slava and Leonard Grigoryan gave an exhilarating performance for more than 1200 people in the Albury Botanic Gardens yesterday.
When they play in capital cities or overseas, their fans happily pay more than $50 a seat but yesterday’s two-hour concert was free, courtesy of the city council, a state grant and help from the Murray Conservatorium.
But the gardens were no concert hall — the audience lounged on a lawn shaded by trees from many countries, just as the Grigoryan Brothers take their music from around the globe.
They performed on their classical guitars under an English pin oak as children played nearby on a cedar of Lebanon and parents relaxed on chairs or rugs below the towering skyduster palms from Mexico.
The brothers have an Armenian heritage and were taught guitar as children by their violinist father.
Their concert ranged from a piece by Tchaikovsky to gypsy music and rather jazzy contemporary works by British, US or South American composers.
Typically they left one of the best to last, a lively piece by Brazilian Paulo Bellinanti, complete with banging their guitars with their hands like a bongo drummer.
With the day cooler than of late with a light breeze, the event recalled for the “pleasant Sunday afternoons” of long ago when live music was more a way of life.
As always, the brothers — separated by 11 years in age — played in perfect harmony.
The next free gardens concert is on April 21 with the Sousaphonics.