world atfingertips

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Slava Grigoryan is a2O-year-old who drinks,

chases girls and playspool with his mates.

He is also a guitarvirtuoso who is being

hailed as Australia'snext John Williams.

and played the whole thing through."His lapse almost certainly cost him

first place in the competition. "If he'dbeen a mature musician it might havehad a bad impact on his career," says

Irina Grigoryan, "but he was so youngthat he recovered quite quickly."

Besides. fate was sitting in the audi-ence in the form of Austin Prichard-Levy, a fbrmer student of John Williamsand friend of pianist David Helfgottand his wife Gillian.

Six years earlier, in 1985, Prichard-Levy had recognised Helfgott, as muchfor his oddball character as his musi-cianship, and staged what was to be thefirst concert in Helfgott's remarkablereincarnation. "I borrowed a Steinwayfor it." Prichard-Levy told me by tele-phone from the US, where he was onthe Shine tour as Helfgott's producer.

In 1991, Prichard-Levy had cometo see Slava Grigoryan play in Sydneyafter hearing him on tape attemptingIsaac Albdniz's famous movement,Sevilla. "I said at the time.'Thissounds like a young Julian Bream.' Ihad no set plan ... [but] I could hear

The boy was barely 14. The audit-orium was full. Eight hundred otherguitarists were in rapt attention. 'I'he

piece was a finger-teaser - one clf Bach'spreludes from the lute suites in A minor.Slava Grigorvan was travelling beauti-fully when, suddenly, he hit a blankwall. His mind had shut down.

He had no idea rvhere he was going.He was lost, so to speak. in a fugue.

Behind the stage his mother. Irina.froze. Was it 30 seconds or a lifetime thather son sat there. head bowed, his paleface hidden behind a shock of dark curls,trying to find his way home? "l'd said tohim [before the performance] don'tthink about notes, think about phrasing,about music, about melody. Don't thinkaboul what comes next. Just enjoy your-self. Make music. But he was tense."

"I think you just go into shock,"Slava Grigoryan says now, recalling thenightmare. "The thing with Bach is thatit's like a circle and once you get onthere's no breaks or anything. I had nomusic in front of me and I just didn'tknow where to start from so I had tostart from the top. And I started again

wonderStory by David Leser

GOOD WEEKEND JTJLY I9. I997

Photography by Greg Elms

that his style was uncommonly original." American jazz keyboardist Chick Corea In 1996, Grigoryan toured Australia asAs Grigoryan played Paganini's tortu- for the way in which two of his pieces had part of a Great Guitars tour alongside

ously difficult The Carnival of Venice and been interpreted. Paco Pena and Leo Kottke. After his per-then Bach's prelude, Prichard-Levy and a In 1994, Grigoryan became the first formance at Adelaide's Festival Theatre,group of guitarist friends listened in awe. classical guitarist in 23 years to be signed TheAustralian newspaperconcludedthatIt didn't matter that he stumbled in the worldwide by Sony Records, the last per- Grigoryan showed "such outstandingprelude. "All of us, as we were walking son being John Williams. He was signed command" of his instrument that it wasout, said Slava was the only real musician to a five-album contract. only a matter of time "before he, too, isin the contest," Prichard-Levy says. "We Michael Napthali, the then newly world famous".said, 'This kid has got it.' " appointed classical manager at Sony Early this year he toured the country

And, as if to prove them right, there was Records in Australia, was still trying to with the Australian Chamber OrchestraGrigoryan after his performance, playing find the power points in his office when and, at the time of writing, had almost

completed an interna-tional tour taking inCyprus, the Netherlandsand England. In England,he revisited WigmoreHall, site of a thrillingrecital last year whichClassical Music Maga-zine described as "a trulydazzling and brilliantperformance". In Londonhis agents are HazardChase, Julian Bream'srepresentatives. His pro-ducer, not surprisingly, isAustin Prichard-Levy,who seems to have an un-canny ability to locate andnurture unusual talents.(Apart from Grigoryan

an impromptu recital in the foyer, with acrowd gathered around him. "He wasplaying everything he could," his motherrecalls, "and everyone was clapping and Ithought this was a good thing because hecould tell that everyone liked him."

At the age of 20, it's probably too soon -and too unfair - to start talking aboutSlava Grigoryan as though his place along-side the guitar gods is assured. Look at theburdens John Williams was forced toshoulder after Segovia virtually anointedhim his heir apparent 30-odd years ago.

Williams spent years trying to wrestlewith such presumptions. It's one of thereasons he is reluctant to comment pub-licly on Grigoryan today, even though heis full of admiration.

And yet there is no escaping the buzzwhich now surrounds the young man withthe hooded, burning eyes and the fingersthat look like eagles'talons. Grigoryan, or"el chico rurso" (young Russian boy) as heis known in the Spanish guitar fraternity,came to Melbourne as a child from theformer southern Soviet republic of Kaz-akhstan in 1981.

Eleven years later, he'd become theyoungest ever finalist in the Tokyo In-ternational Classical Guitar Competitionand in the same year had recorded hisfirst solo guitar CD, Spirit of Spain, whichwas to hold the number-one spot on theclassical charts in Australia for six weeks.

Described in The New York Times as aremarkable recital ... [and] guitar playingof uncommon originality and authority",it was also lavishly praised by legendary

14

Austin Prichard-Levy arrived one morn-ing with a tape for him to listen to.

"He came to see me with this cassetteand the first cut was [Albdniz's] Sevilla,"says Napthali. "I knew that track quitewell because John Williams plays it. Sowhen I heard this performance by Slavaon a crappy old cassette I was struck. Youdidn't have to be the big record industrymogul to work it out. Any idiot who knewanything about good music could hearthat it was amazing."

A week later Napthali remembersPrichard-Levy returning with a cassette ofboth Grigoryan and Williams. (Accordingto Prichard-Levy, it was Grigoryan andWilliams, but also a selection of Segoviaand Julian Bream.) "He asked me to pickthe difference, which I did, but the qualityof the technical performance was so im-mensely close that it was impossible totell," says Napthali.

"To get to a point where I'm splittinghairs between Slava and John Williamsshould give you some indication of howwell it came across. It was just amazingthat a child, a child literally of 16, couldbe up there on a cassette being comparedto someone of such a virtuosic nature as

John Williams."I thought, 'God, here's a star.' What

else could you think? You can't just dis-miss it as being some flash in the pan."

Prichard-Levy agrees. "There is nothingin the repertoire Slava can't play. I haveseen him sight-read the most difficultpiece, Usher Waltz by [Nikita] Koshkin,on the spot and he played it much betterthan most people who have recorded it."

and David Helfgott, he is also producerfor violinist Asmira Woodward-Page,daughter of Roger Woodward.)

So the hype is on. Sting is consideringplaying with him. Sagat Guirey, NigelKennedy's guitarist, has become his friend.Russian violist Yuri Bashmet wants him onhis virtuoso tour of Europe. John Williams'agent also has proposed a tour of Europe,while Mayte Martin, the great Catalansinger, has suggested performing with him.

Little wonder that Michael Napthalikeeps gushing. "Even though he's a classi-cal guitarist he will also be one of the bestjazz guitarists the world has ever seen. It'skind of scary. He's just a young kid withthis incredible talent ... You will see himjamming and he will switch between doingSevilla to doing the riff from The WindCries Mary, the classic Jimi Hendrix song,and you think, this is just too good tokeep bottled up in little old Australia."

Kazakhstan, the former Soviet republic,is known more for its nomadic cattle breed-ers than its musicians. In summer, theAsiatic winds turn feather-grass to desertand in winter the rivers ebb and freeze.

In 1980, Eduard and Irina Grigoryandecided to pack their bags for Australiawith four-year-old son Slava and variousmembers of their extended family.Eduard was a jazz drummer and violinistand Irina a violist. Both were highly suc-cessful musicians with the philharmonicorchestra in the Kazakhstan capital Alma-Ata when a cousin wrote urging them tocome to Melbourne.

They knew virtually nothing about their

GOOD WEEKEND JULY 19, 1997

new city, but Eduard dreamed of visitingshops filled only with records. particularlythose by his jazz heroes Miles Davis, ChickCorea and Weather Report.

By pretending to emigrate to Israel,the Grigoryan family were given per-mission to leave Kazakhstan. It wason the Romanian-Ukraine border. intemperatures of 20 degrees below zero,that Slava was given his first instrument- a toy guitar.

After arriving in Australia in June,

as a solo guitarist in Sydney. At school hewas a star. "He played La Bamba behindhis back in class," says one of his oldschool friends, Andrew Eaton, still revel-ling in the memory.

At his last school assembly he did a

solo version of the school anthem, thesame way Hendrix did Star-SpangledBanner. "l saw a lot of red-faced teachersin the audience," Grigoryan chortles.

Today, when you talk to Slava Grig-oryan, you get dual impressions. One,

guitar and within four hours of us meetinthe three of us were playing on stage arfrom then on we played it every night

From a record company's point of vierSlava Grigoryan is a gift to be treasure,Classical music is throwing off its olstraitjacket. New music is being forgerNew audiences are being tapped. NigrKennedy, well-spoken English publischoolboy that he was, proved thiwhen he reinvented himself as the ba

boy punk violinist. S<

too, did Freddie Mercury (the late singefrom rock band Queenwhen he recorded witthe Spanish sopranMonserrat Caballe.

"People are lookinfor the sensibilities oclassical music but packaged in a more contemporary way," says MichaeNapthali. And SlaviGrigoryan fits the bilperfectly - he can pla.whatever has been imagined for the guitar, even iit might offend at times.

Earlier this year, Grigoryan toured with thr

Australian Chamber Orchestra and, to.gether with the ACO's artistic directorRichard Tognetti, performed a piecrcalled Hallow ... A Welconte Message .fotElectric Violin and Guitnr.

Writing in The Australian. JeremlVincent summed up the feelings of manlwhen he said: "Hallow. for all its com.plexities and exploitation of the chromati<scale. becomes caught up in its own improvisation, its disparate elements flayin6about almost as if Tognetti and Grigoryarare a couple of lads experimenting witlnew-found instruments and electric leadrout in the garage."

"It's very frustrating." says Grigoryarof this and other negative reactions to thepiece. "In all classical concerts, the audi.ence [and critics] know what you're goingto be playing. They've heard the best ver.sions of it, and so when you do somethinplike what we did with Hallow, they don'tknow how to deal with it ...

"We were so excited about doing thisnew stuff in front of people, but the publi<just don't want it. They're so tied up irtheir own little worlds. People would walkout and not come back for the rest of thegig, knowing what was coming on afterthis [Evangelista, Sibelius, Prokofiev ancRodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuezl. lt wasonly a four-minute piece.

"Both Richard and I love rock and wewanted to play a serious classical compo-sition using rock sounds, and peoplewere just petrified as soon as they sawthe amplifiers on stage."

Soon after making these comments.Grigoryan, Tognetti and drummer Chad

GOOD WEEKEND JULY 19. I997

1981, he was given an old cast-off with a

high action and steel strings that left hisfingers in shreds. For a while he stoppedplaying. He might have pursued the violinexcept his parents wouldn't hear of it.

"When he was born ... there is a

tradition that you have to drink to thenewborn," explains Eduard Grigoryanfrom the family's neat weatherboardhome in Melbourne's inner-east. "Andthe first toast was from a very good violinplayer who said, 'Let's drink that Slava isnot going to play violin.' That was thetoast, because it's a very difficult instru-ment. It takes years to learn."

At six years of age, Slava was given hissecond instrument, this time a full-sizedtreble guitar which he could pick andhammer without drawing blood. Hisfather, who'd never played guitar but un-derstood the instrument completely, be-came his teacher. "In two years he passedsix grades," Eduard says. "Which is fast.It's not incredible, but it's fast."

By the time he was eight, Slava was per-forming in eisteddfods. At 11, he'd ap-peared on radio for an ABC children'sprogram. At 12, he was busking on AclandStreet, St Kilda, earning up to $80 an hour(which paid for the household groceries),as well as playing with the MelbourneMusician's Chamber Orchestra. He'd alsoplayed in the Australian Guitar Com-petition, which was his first contact withthe classical guitar scene.

By the time he was 13, he was guitarsoloist with the Melbourne MandolinOrchestra and at 14, Austin Prichard-Levy had arranged his first formal debut

that there's nothing musically that's be-yond him and that whatever he wants isnow within his reach. Two, that he's stillpinching himself in disbelief at the giddyheights he has already reached. He is atonce urbane and assured, but at the sametime disarmingly boyish. He still lives athome, likes to wake up late, play poolwith his friends, smoke, drink and chasegirls. But then he will go and play to fullconcert halls with two of the greatest gui-tar players in the world, Paco Pena andLeo Kottke.

"Paco and Leo were really great," hesays, recounting his experience of playingwith them in Australia last year."Originally, Pepe Romero was meant tobe doing the tour. He was the classicalguitarist. I was meant to be the supportact, playing for about 10 minutes everynight. I was in Sydney the week leadingup to the tour and I got a call saying,'Look, Pepe hasn't rocked up, you're theclassical guitarist now. The first show istomorrow in Adelaide.'

"So I had to get on the plane, fly overand meet them, and that was it. We didthe show. We got a really good responsefrom the crowd and after the two guysplayed some duets ... they called me outand all three of us walked on and had a

bow and the audience was great andthey were still clapping.

"Then Paco said to me: 'Do you knowRecuerdos de la Alhambra [by FranciscoTarrega]?' And I said, 'Yes,' and hesaid, 'Well, you just play the straightbars and we'll play around you.'

"So I ran to my room and grabbed my

I

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\\'ackerman played at the 25th Bells Beach Rip Curl surfingclassic in Victoria.

This time. instead of in a concert hall, they played under ararpaulin on a bluff above the Southern Ocean. CalledDeriance. the piece was meant to be a parody of Paganini's71 Caprices. To many of the surfies, in their beanies and lum-berjackets. it was white noise.

"Will you tell them to shut up," one girl screamed at thesecurity guard. "I can't," he yelled back. "It's music."

There they are now, differentday, different venue, father andson up on stage playing for auniversity crowd. They areplaying the history of thetango. The father is swayingwith his weeping instrument, the son is hunched over his pieceof wood, claws quivering on frets.

Usually Irina Grigoryan also plays with this String TrioUnique, the name they have given their extraordinary familyensemble. "My parents are absolutely brilliant," says Slava. "Inmany ways they sacrificed their own careers [for me]. Dadwould spend time with me every day. Hours. And he's doingthis with my brother now, instead of practising his own stuff."

Ah yes, we forgot the brother. Lenny Grigoryan is 11 yearsold. Late last year, he and Slava played for the VictorianGovernor and 200 guests at Government House. Earlier thisyear, he jammed on stage with Tommy Emmanuel. Some daysoon, he hopes to play more regularly with his Slava.

"Slava has got very good mobility," says Eduard. "Leonardis a more relaxed type of person. Sometimes I think he isbetter. Then I think, no, Slava was better [at the same age]."

Slava has few doubts. "Lenny's a lot better than I was at hisage," he says. "I think when he was four you could tap a glassand he'd tell you what note it was. He's a really good trumpetplayer as well. He started off and within a few lessons he wasplaying all this stuff and his teacher said that he had the mostperfect embouchure he'd ever seen." Lenny completed sixgrades of trumpet in one year.

So who can blame Michael Napthali, the self-confessed"hype-merchant", for being excited. "I have a lot of peoplecome through my door." he says breathlessly, "but I tell you,this family is astounding. They are f...ing amazing.

"His mother is a prize-winning violist, his father was firstviolinist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and a cham-pion drummer, and then there's Lenny, who can play the guitaralmost as well as Slava... and it's all just descended upon meand I'm thinking'Where does it stop?' " D

Slaua Grigoryan will be touring Australia next month and his secondalbum,Dance of the Angel, will be released by Sony Records on August 71.

GOOD WEEKEND JULY 19,1997

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