Music / Open Sky, Stephanie Jones. At Albert Hall, February 17. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD

Australian born, now German resident, classical guitarist Stephanie Jones is making her first concert tour of Australia for several years. 

She spent four years studying at the ANU School of Music under Tim Kain, so she is well known to the Canberra classical guitar community and they turned out in a big way for this concert.

Albert Hall was full, including the balcony, with Jones on the stage amplified just enough so the guitar was clearly audible without overtly sounding as if it was coming through a PA.

The program was a mix of old and new, opening with the Gavotte and Rondeau from J S Bach’s Lute Suite in E major. This was played with precise phrasing and a light and delicate touch. 

She followed this with works by Australian composers, two by Richard Charleton bookending two Caprices by Ross Edwards. These were works of quite different styles, Charleton’s gentle lyricism contrasting with Edwards’ more modern and abstract writing with hints of flamenco.

The next three works were from an Argentinian composer whose name I could not catch, one by German guitarist (and Jones’ husband) Jakob Schmidt and a third from a Ukrainian composer whose name also escaped me. The lack of a printed program did not help here, but all three were interesting works of considerable complexity which Jones navigated with apparent ease.

The centrepiece of the concert was a solo guitar arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires). 

This work was performed here last year by the CSO Strings and originally scored for Piazzolla’s ensemble of violin, piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón. This solo guitar arrangement captured the tango essence of the music in a most impressive performance over 20 minutes or so.

A couple of gentler works finished off this most entertaining and skilfully performed concert. We can only look forward to her next return.