Contributed by the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre
It's the guitar like you've never seen it — the Canadian Guitar Quartet, one of the world's finest guitar ensembles, will present their unique and expert handling of this popular instrument in Revelstoke on Thursday, Feb. 2.
The show is part of the group's intense 23-concert, 25-day tour of B.C. and the passion musicians Julien Bisaillon, Renaud Côté-Giguère, Bruno Roussel and Louis Trépanier hold for the guitar is clearly inexhaustible.
"We love the guitar, we love the whole thing," Trépanier said.
He is one of the award-winning ensemble's founding members from when it began in 1999. The current line-up of accomplished guitarists has been with the group for a number of years and collectively they have an impressive background of accolades and experience.
Together they will share the stage at the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre as they perform their broad repertoire, which includes the exotic sounds of South America, original works and also transpositions of classical music, while using musical techniques such as vibrato and utilising the guitar's form as a drum.
"The guitar is a lovely percussion instrument, depending on where and how you tap it, there is a whole rich family of sounds," Trépanier said.
The group is particularly excited about their conversion to guitar from the last two movements of Beethoven's String Quartet, 59, No. 3, the minuet and fugue.
"Beethoven never wrote anything for guitar," Trepanier explained. "The kind of music he did, which you can play in various forms, are hard to fit on the guitar in a way that works well.
"It's such a pleasure. Everyone knows the name Beethoven and knows he is supposed to be this great genius. We got to see why his reputation stands so high in the minds of musicians throughout the world. Every last note is so perfect."
The sexy and exciting Latin sounds are a fun staple for the group who uses nylon stringed guitars, common throughout the South American continent.
"The pieces that we're most at home in are the tango pieces, in part because we've been playing them the longest," Trépanier said. "We don't have to talk about it, we just do it, and it works."
The quartet has released three critically acclaimed recordings. Their latest CD will be available on tour.
The Canadian Guitar Quartet play the Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre on Thursday, Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased through the RPAC website or at the door.