Musica Vivia. Adelaide Town Hall. 6 Oct 2022
Israeli virtuoso mandolinist Avi Avital is no stranger to our shores – he has wowed Australian audiences on other occasions with his luminous musicality. On this occasion Musica Viva was to tour him with renowned Italian composer and cellist Giovanni Sollima, but sadly the ever present COVID menace put those plans to the sword, with Sollima unfortunately contracting the virus and therefore unable to travel.
However, Adelaide-based pianist Konstantin Shamray (or ‘Saint’ Konstantin, as Avital affectionately quipped from the podium) stepped in at relatively short notice and worked with Avital to prepare a new program for the tour. Our political and civic leaders talk about the need for us to be increasingly agile and flexible in these troubled times, and it seems our artists should be no exception. Avital and Shamray are clear examples of that, thank goodness!
The program planned with Sollima clearly had to change – it was never a case of the piano merely replacing the cello. This reviewer has not heard duets for cello and mandolin ever before, but Vivaldi’s Concerto for Mandolin, Strings and Basso Continuo in C Major RV425 perhaps gives a clue about how cello/mandolin duets might sound. The modern grand piano has the potential to overwhelm the delicate sound of the mandolin, but in the ever capable and supremely musical hands of Shamray, this did not occur.
At the start of the seventy-minute non-stop concert, Avital and Shamray assuredly take to the stage and no sooner are they seated than a brisk nod from Shamray launches them into an arrangement of Romanian Folk dances by Béla Bartók. Shamray extracts light bell-like tones from the piano, and Avital plays with lightness and purity of tone as he weaves through the varying textures and rhythms.
The collection of dances demonstrate the potential for collaboration between the piano and mandolin, and this potential is tested by an arrangement of Mozart’s Violin Sonata No. 21 in E Minor, K.304. This piece is well known and the combination of violin and piano works well, but the substitution of the mandolin for the violin often seems to deprive the piece of its gentle-heartedness and melancholy. Shamray compensates for this potential deficit with a delightful gentleness in his touch where necessary and allows Avital to become the focus of attention when required. The piece finishes with a strong flourish from both instruments and the audience loves it.
The Mozart is followed by the first of two solo brackets from Avital, in which he performs a work by Sollima himself. It allows Avital to demonstrate aspects of his virtuosity with simultaneous pizzicato of the double strings with the left hand and playing a form of ponticello with the right. Later in the program Avital plays a most interesting piece written in 15/16 meter (“almost 4/4” he again quips!) which is frenetic and has an irresistible momentum that keeps the audience pushing forward in their seats. It finishes with an almost nonchalant strum and the audience erupts in exuberant applause and wolf whistles!
Avital and Shamray’s performance of Manuel de Falla’s popular Seven Spanish Songs is interesting. It is not entirely clear whether the vocal line is simply taken over by the mandolin with the piano accompaniment played ‘as written’, or whether the arrangement is somewhat more ambitions and includes the two instruments sharing the vocal and accompaniment roles. Whatever the case, the result is infectious. Some of the songs more obviously evoke Spanishness, such as the third– Asturiana – in which Avital produces the most evocative and beautiful yearning melodies. In the last song – Polo – the almost violent strumming of the mandolin is contrasted with the close interweaving of Shamray’s hands on the keyboard as he essays incredibly dense chords.
The concert concludes with three Israeli dance tunes that provide a final demonstration that the unusual pairing of mandolin and piano can produce musical magic, at least in the hands of two virtuosos. In the first dance the piano is decisive and the mandolin is more subservient, but in the second the focus carefully moves backwards and forwards between the two instruments, with careful and empathetic playing from both musicians – each alert to the needs of the other. This culminates in almost wanton enthusiasm in the third dance and final piece of the program, and the audience is so excited that it is almost on its feet! Some did.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
