Choose artist...
Stories   >   Avi Avital showcases new concerto with VSO / Vancouver Sun

Stories for July 08, 2025

Top 10 for Jul

More Albums with Avi Avital

Avi Avital showcases new concerto with VSO / Vancouver Sun

Posted: January 17, 2024

The orchestra has something exceptional on tap for mid-January: a trio of performances featuring guest conductor Tianyi Lu and mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital.
 

Vancouver Sun - David Gordon Duke writes…Members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra rang in 2024 on New Year’s Day with a traditional Vienna-style matinee. But with that annual event out of the way, the orchestra has something quite new and exceptional on tap for mid-January: a trio of performances featuring guest conductor Tianyi Lu and mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital.

New Zealander Lu bookends her first VSO concert with Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture (based on Heinrich Joseph von Collin, not Shakespeare), and ends with Dvorák’s engaging Symphony No. 7 in D minor, a work that eloquently demonstrates how the sober yet potent influence of Brahms caused Dvorak to rethink his conception of the symphony. The Seventh was extraordinarily well-received, although these days its popularity has been eclipsed by his ubiquitous “From the New World” Symphony.

Such conventional repertoire is very much a known proposition and as well a fine way to assess a new-to-town conductor’s prowess. However, at the heart of the program is a new Concerto for Mandolin and Orchestra by American composer Jennifer Higdon, who over the last decade has come close to becoming a household name in orchestral circles. Her hit Blue Cathedral has certainly won the hearts of audiences all over.

Born in 1962, Higdon was still in her teens when she embarked on serious musical training. Staking out her turf as a composer of new works, Higdon has created a sizable catalogue for orchestra, opera and chamber groups. She’s garnered Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize, a good gauge of popularity in North America, and has been commissioned by star soloists like Hilary Hahn, Yuja Wang and Joshua Bell, players wanting new works, but not necessarily experimental ones, to play with orchestras
Even an experienced composer might balk at creating effective music for the mandolin, an instrument heard all too rarely in the contemporary concert hall. But in the right hands its unique and enchanting sound has great charm, and Avi Avital is exactly the right advocate for his instrument.

Avital was first brought to Vancouver by Leila Getz and the Vancouver Recital Society a few seasons back. Introducing himself, he explained that as a young man he had the good luck to attend a secondary school that included classical music in its syllabus. The school possessed some gifted mandolins, so he and his fellow students formed a makeshift mandolin orchestra. While that’s not exactly the normal launch of an international career, Avital has gone on to fame as a virtuoso player of remarkable presence.

Going back to that first Vancouver performance, I confess to having been just a bit skeptical when I saw the great J.S. Bach Chaconne on the program. A failed violinist myself, I thought Avital must surely be tempting fate by essaying this towering monument of the violin repertoire on a soft-spoken instrument like the mandolin. Was I wrong: Avital’s interpretation demonstrated a musical talent of the first order.

His debut with the VSO has been a long time coming. He was booked to play Vivaldi’s charming mandolin concerto in 2020, but COVID-19 intervened. Now he’s finally here, and offering three chances to experience his remarkable artistry in performance venues that should flatter his instrument. Never heard a mandolin up close and personal? Now’s your chance.

 

SEE THE Vancouver Sun PAGE