too much fandango’

Knighton says she had hoped the tour could have happened in 2022 but she’s thrilled it’s finally happening, a tad later than expected. That may not be such a bad thing. ‘To embark on a national tour straight out of lockdown would have been a shock. Now we have our concert rhythm back and we are well and truly looking forward to it.’

Schaupp is happy to be ‘going on the road with old friends again’. The extra time has benefited the program: ‘It’s so important to have the right balance,’ she says. ‘Each piece can be wonderful but sometimes things don’t go together. But in this case they do.’

She describes the opening piece, Carulli’s Guitar Concerto in A Major, as ‘a delicate piece that works really well with the quartet’. ‘I first played it with the St Lucia Orchestra in Brisbane in my early teens and haven’t come back to it that often. It’s very charming.’

While each piece has its own resonance for all the musicians, Schaupp says she is particularly looking forward to playing Carl Vine’s Endless for Guitar and String Quartet. This is the centrepiece of the concert, and Vine is a revered Australian composer and former Musica Viva Australia Artistic Director. In 2019, when Paul Kildea took over the role, he asked his predecessor to create a new work, commissioned by a longstanding audience member wishing to immortalise the joyous

‘Playing a Carl Vine composition for the guitar has been on my bucket list for a while,’ she says. ‘I have approached him many times but the guitar is very idiomatic and a unique thing to take on if you don’t play it. Carl is an incredible composer and a fastidious researcher and he really wanted to understand the guitar. He has written for it beautifully and I want to do the music and the subject justice. It will be emotional but I hope it is cathartic as well.’

Knighton says being the first musicians to play this new work will be a career highlight. ‘It’s a gift and a responsibility. This program began with this new work as the nucleus. It’s not an add-on, it is the reason for being. The other pieces were chosen aesthetically to set up the Vine.’

To be performing it with Karin Schaupp is extra special. Knighton describes her as ‘pretty much a superstar’ and the pair have been friends for more than a decade. To be working together again is a treat for them and for the audiences in each of the cities they will be visiting.