It was in his native Isreal that Avi Avital first fell in love with the mandolin. A role in a local youth orchestra introduced him to classical music. From there his career path was set. You can hear tracks from Avital's new release of mandolin works on KBIA. He was recently interviewed by KBIA's Trevor Harris.
The new CD from Avital features six pieces from Antonio Vivaldi recorded with the Venice Baroque Orchestra. It was important for Avital to record the selections in Venice, Italy where Vivaldi was born and spent his productive composing years.
I really insisted on having this process being in Venice and not in any other place because it gives you this extra piece of authenticity to be in the place and to play the music with people from the place. And eat Venetian food in the lunch breaks and hear the Venetian dialects in the rehearsals. It all gave this little extra spice to the recording.
While Avital's mandolins were less impacted, his colleagues did suffer somewhat from the notorious Venetian humidity. "It was funny because the cellists complained when it was too humid. Sometimes we had to stop the session to turn on the air conditioners and dry things out."
Besides the Vivaldi works on the new CD, a work by Domenico Scarlatti and a selection from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni there aren't too many mandolin-centric pieces. To try and rectify that Avital is "commissioning a lot of modern music for the mandolin, so hopefully in 100 years when someone at your radio station asks you can tell them there is a lot of prepared repertoire from our time."
Reviewing Avital's recent performance with the Venice Baroque Orchestra at New York's Zankel Hall, the New York Times' Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim noted that "The chemistry between the ensemble and Mr. Avital was palpable. There were exquisite little exchanges between Mr. Avital and Ivano Zanenghi, the orchestra’s lutenist, that played on the juxtaposition of the sharp and mellow sounds of their respective instruments, and moments when the mandolin and Mr. [Daniele] Bovo’s cello conversed as equals."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBEwEy5dgZU
Listen for music from the new Deutsche Gramphon release 'Vivaldi' from Avi Avital with the Venice Baroque Orchestra during KBIA weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.