This performance, part of the year-long Brisbane Music Festival, presents the guitarist Karin Schaupp in a chamber setting. It’s not often we get to hear the guitar in so many different configurations in one concert – here we had guitar both alone and separately paired with flute, cello and piano. I hadn’t seen a concert in Brisbane CBD’s City Workshop space before, but it’s a cool, grungy underground venue, quite different to what we’d normally think of as a “classical” concert venue, with fairy lights and plants scattered throughout. A further ring of lights laid out on the floor separated the performers from the audience.

Karin Schaupp

Karin Schaupp. Photograph supplied

The concert began with the evergreen Vivaldi Lute Concerto, performed with a string quartet made up of Brisbane Music Festival Young Artists. Unfortunately, this got off to a shaky start, with the quartet’s tempos wobbling badly as each movement began. Schaupp’s professionalism kept things neatly on track, but it also felt as if she was doing all the heavy lifting and accompanying the ensemble rather than them accompanying her. The normally sprightly third movement became rather leaden as a result,...