Avital’s mandolin featured in unique concert

By Eileen Wingard

SAN DIEGO — Last month, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra (SDSO) concluded its Chamber Music Series at the Scripps Research Institute Auditorium with a program featuring an unusual instrument for classical chamber music concerts, the mandolin. That plucked folk instrument, in the hands of the Israeli-born mandolin virtuoso, Avi Avital, combined with string instruments played by steller players of the orchestra. The mandolin acquitted itself well as a strong partner, contributing to a delightful and satisfying evening of music.

The program opened with a transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto #1 in A minor, with Avital playing the solo violin line. The accompanying quintet, made up of Jisun Yang and Alexander Palamidis, violins, Chi-Yuan Chen, viola, chia-Ling Chien, cello and Jory Herman, bass, balanced nicely with the delicate folk instrument while Avital projected the solo line of this baroque work with style and verve.

Programmed next, was the world premiere of Cymbeline, a piece for mandolin and string quartet by David Bruce recently named Associate Composer of the SDSO. It was set in three movements, Sunrise, High Noon and Sunset. Cymbeline opened with tremolo and pizzicato, evoking images of a rising sun. The music had an oriental patina as it included haunting harmonics and glissandos. The second movement resembled folk dances, while the third movement receded into a hushed finale.  The audience responded enthusiastically to Bruce’s work.

Following intermission, Rose Lombardo, principal flute of the SDSO and Andrew Watkins, principal timpanist of the orchestra, on marimba, performed three selections from Astor Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango: Bordello 1900, Café 1930 and Nightclub 1960. These seductive-sounding treats could not have been rendered more impressively.

Avital returned to the stage alone to play a solo transcription of Ernest Bloch’s Nigun from the Baal Shem Suite for violin and piano. The youthful artist remarkably sustained the notes originally written to be bowed, by tremoloing with his pick on two strings. He successfully conveyed the deep spirituality of this music.

This unusual program concluded with a work by the Georgian composer, Sulkhan Tsintsadze Five Miniatures for mandolin, violin, viola, cello and bass. These short pieces incorporated Armenian folksongs with their characteristic syncopated rhythms. Particularly lovely was the Lied, with the mandolin on melody and the strings accompanying. The final movement, Dance Tune brought the concert to a rousing climax.

I attended the concert with July Galper, whose efforts to showcase young Israeli talent in San Diego included bringing Avi Avital on several occasions. I recall hearing him twice in the lovely ambiance of a Rancho Santa Fe home and once at the Garfield Theatre of the Lawrence Family JCC.

Now a Deutsche Grammophon recording artist and the first mandolin player to have ever won a Grammy nomination in the Best Instrumental Soloist category, Avital performs extensively throughout Europe, the U.S. and Israel. He currently resides in Berlin, Germany.

The New York Times praised his “exquisitely sensitive playing,” and Haaretz Daily described his performance as “everything you never dreamt a mandolin could do…truly breathtaking in virtuosity and dedication.”

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Wingard is a freelance writer and retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony orchestra. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com