Check out our new Classical Recording of the Month for March, and a Winnipeg exclusive interview with our featured artist Avi Avital.

Accompanied by the talented and prolific Venice Baroque Orchestra, the album offers an enjoyable fifty-odd minutes of virtuoso mandolin playing . . . Avital is unquestionably a fine mandolin player, his tone sweet and fluid, his tempos well judged, neither too breakneck fast nor too maddeningly slack, and his natural affinity for the instrument always in evidence in his intonation and flexibility. I mean, the thing about Avital is that he makes Vivaldi fun again.

After so many Vivaldi recordings that all sound alike, it's refreshing to hear Avital's mandolin take on things. His transcriptions are a breath of fresh air, even giving new life to that old chestnut "Summer." Favorites? I must confess to liking all of them. But I especially enjoyed the dreamy "Largos" in RV 356 and RV 318; the zesty opening "Allegro" in RV 318; the entire RV 425, . . . the lovely, delicate "Trio Sonata"; the sweet yet lusty and fanciful spirit Avital brings to the "Summer" concerto (here, you can practically feel the heat rising from the Venetian pavement in the "Adagio"); and the longing melancholy in the final song, sung by Juan Diego Florez to Avital's accompaniment. But, as I say, they all sound fresh and beautiful . . .

The engineers have captured the sound of the mandolin pretty well, the instrument very clean, very clear, with excellent transient response, and they have integrated the soloist well within the context of the orchestra.

Record Review / John J. Puccio, Classical Candor (Blog) / 15. February 2015

 

 

Missed Michael's interview with Avi. Listen here! Michael started by asking Avi, how he came to play the mandolin.