Karin Schaupp is one of Australia’s finest musicians and the Flinders Quartet is one of our best chamber ensembles. So whoever had the great idea to combine the two, take a bow. This new recording of guitar quintets featuring works by Pujol, Boccherini, Haydn and Houghton is of the highest calibre. Three of the pieces were written as guitar quintets while the Haydn is an arrangement of one of his string quartets. Pujol’s Tangata de Agosto is a tango- styled piece that gets the CD off to a magnificent start and from there it only gets better. Compositions this strong require the musicians to really understand the music and to have a great rapport with each other and this they have in spades. Highly recommended.

Phil Richards is from Readings Carlton.