With his album "Concertos" the charismatic mandolinist Avi Avital fulfills a dream and collaborates with the renowned ensemble for historical instruments "Il Giardino Armonico" and its conductor and founder Giovanni Antonini. Together they interpret three concertos for mandolin by Emanuele Barbella, Giovanni Paisiello and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, as well as Avital's own arrangements of concertos by J. S. Bach and Vivaldi. Of the three original works for mandolin, two are from Naples. Neapolitan culture is full of color, emotion and theatricality; qualities that are reflected in Avital's performance.
Avital describes his arrangement of J. S. Bach's well-known Concerto for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060R as a lighter and brighter version for mandolin and recorder. In Avital’s version, his fellow soloist is Giovanni Antonini himself. And Avital has long had clear ideas about the performance of his favorite Vivaldi work, the Concerto in B minor for four violins, RV 580. With multitrack recordings, Avital himself could interpret all four violin parts himself, on four different mandolins and two mandolas. As a result, each voice takes on a different color and specific character. "I'm proud of the result," Avital says. "You think you're in a live performance, as if there are soloists communicating with each other." In Avital's hands, the mandolin is finding anew its rightful place in classical music.
