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.
Il Giardino Armonico, founded in Milan in 1985, brings together a number of graduates from some of Europe’s leading colleges of music, all of whom have specialised in playing on period instruments. Many of its members are also in demand as international soloists and have appeared in concert with such eminent artists as N. Harnoncourt, G. Leonhardt, T. Pinnock, Ch. Coin and J. Savall. The ensemble’s repertory is concentrated in the main on the 17th and 18th centuries. Depending on the demands of each programme, the group will consist of anything from 3 to 30 musicians…
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.
“This is how I want to make music!” That was Avi Avital’s reaction when he first saw Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini play live in Jerusalem. He’s now joined by the ensemble and its conductor and co-founder on his latest album, entitled simply Concertos and featuring original concertos for mandolin by Barbella, Paisiello and Hummel alongside Avital’s own adaptations of concertos by J.S. Bach and Vivaldi. The album comes out on 17 November – pre-order it today and enjoy the new pre-release track ‘Paisiello: III. Allegretto’.
For fans of Il Giardino Armonico's flamboyant flourishes and exuberant expressiveness, it's like having all your birthdays at once, being presented with this great Warner Classics 11 CD set. My own feeling is that this "free" approach to Baroque music is at its best when applied to the theatrical music of disc 8 or the seventeenth century Italian music on disc 1. The showmanship and playfulness is an absolute joy in many of those pieces. I'm less satisfied with the interpretations of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, (on discs 10 and 11), which require a different approach, I feel. I like my Bach to be a little more measured and subtle, I suppose. It has no need of the Il Giardino Armonico treatment. On the whole, though, I do love this set and wouldn't be without it.
For fans of Il Giardino Armonico's flamboyant flourishes and exuberant expressiveness, it's like having all your birthdays at once, being presented with this great Warner Classics 11 CD set. My own feeling is that this "free" approach to Baroque music is at its best when applied to the theatrical music of disc 8 or the seventeenth century Italian music on disc 1. The showmanship and playfulness is an absolute joy in many of those pieces.
Born in Milan, Giovanni Antonini studied at the Civica Scuola di Musica and at the Centre de Musique Ancienne in Geneva. He is a founder member of the Baroque ensemble “il Giardino Armonico”, which he has led since 1989. With this ensemble he has appeared as conductor and soloist on the recorder and Baroque transverse flute in Europe, United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Japan and Malaysia. He has performed with many prestigious artists including Cecilia Bartoli, Isabel Faust, Viktoria Mullova, Giuliano Carmignola, Giovanni Sollima, Sol Gabetta, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Kristian Bezuidenhout.
For this second volume in the Haydn 2032 project, the complete recording of his symphonies, Giovanni Antonini has chosen to put forward the Symphony Der Philosoph. He associates with it a symphony by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, eldest son of the Kantor of Leipzig, who is generally considered the most gifted of his sons. Different reasons brought these two great composers the originality and sometimes eccentricity that characterize their works, one suffering from the fame of his father, the other from his own genius. Whereas Haydn’s symphonies differentiate themselves by form, orchestration and keys, W. F. Bach’s begins in the style of a Baroque overture, gradually turning into a tempestuous piece and perhaps already reflecting the transition from a ‘Golden Age’ to the more tormented world that will follow the Age of Enlightenment.
This is Vivaldi and the Super, Super Bartoli at their best. Flawless in performance, execution and musicianship! This album is astounding and is super because it allows me to hear and SEE!"