Avital Presents Music Composed for Mandolin

courtesy of Universal Music Group

According to my records I have been following the work of mandolinist Avi Avital since March of 2010, when he appeared as a guest soloist with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Since that time he has built up an impressive repertoire of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, the most recent of which, entitled Art of the Mandolin, is now available from Amazon.com for MP3 download. The physical release is scheduled for one week from today; and, as expected, Amazon has created a Web page for pre-orders.

Avital describes his latest release as “the first time I’ve made an album where the entire repertoire was originally written for the mandolin.” This appears to be true as far as the mandolin is concerned, but some of the pieces have been transcribed for instruments not originally intended. Thus, the second of Ludwig van Beethoven’s WoO compositions, an Adagio movement in E-flat major, was composed for mandolin and piano (of eighteenth-century vintage); but Avital performed the piece accompanied by harpist Anneleen Lenaerts. On the other hand Domenico Scarlatti’s K 89 sonata in D minor was scored for harpsichord joined by strings and winds. (The Scott Ross performance has his harpsichord work accompanied by violin, cello, oboe, and bassoon.) On Avital’s album, Yizhar Karshon plays the harpsichord part, joined by Avital, Ophira Zakai on theorbo, and Patric Sepec on cello.

Of much greater interest are the contemporary chamber music compositions that bring the mandolin together with different combinations of instruments. Thus, David Bruce’s three-movement suite Death Is a Friend of Ours is scored for mandolin, harp, harpsichord, theorbo, and guitar, resulting in an impressive diversity of plucked sonorities. In a similar vein the album concludes with two trio sonatas for mandolin, guitar, and harp composed by Paul Ben-Haim and Hans Werner Henze.

From a more personal point of view, the very first Musical Heritage Society album I purchased featured Antonio Vivaldi’s RV 532 concerto for two mandolins in G major. Ironically, the music was performed with a pair of lutes as the soloists! As a result, Avital’s Art of the Mandolin provided me, many decades later, with the first opportunity to listen to this concerto performed by mandolins; and the listening experience could not have been more delightful!