Review: How much difference can one mandolin make? Bowl audience hears a fresh spin on ‘Four Seasons’

At the last concert of the Hollywood Bowl classical season Thursday night, two fellows made their Los Angeles Philharmonic debuts. Neither is a garden-variety classical musician.

Front and center was Avi Avital, who is trying to punch the diminutive mandolin into the front ranks of classical solo instruments. He’s exerted much effort toward that end — commissioning more than 90 new compositions, releasing three albums on the once-lordly, now increasingly freewheeling Deutsche Grammophon label. He knows how to pose for the cameras on his album covers, looking soulfully at the sky whether with feet on the ground or aloft.

On the podium was André de Ridder, whose biography indicates a strong affinity for the offbeat and the hip, working with maverick directors such as Peter Sellars and Barrie Kosky, reinterpreting the music of David Bowie with his Berlin-based team of progressive European musicians called s t a r g a z e (with a space between each letter), and leading a recording of Terry Riley’s “In C” in Mali with local musicians.

So what did this unusual duo come up with at the Bowl? Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” one of the most overplayed, over-recorded works in the entire literature — 223 listings and counting on ArkivMusic.com’s website.

But wait. As one might suspect from the above, this would be an unusual “Four Seasons” — not nearly as radical as De Ridder’s recording of Max Richter’s “re-composed” version of “The Four Seasons,” but different in that Avital made a transcription of the solo violin part for his mandolin.

It was partly a stunt for a virtuoso in search of new material for a neglected instrument and partly a transformation of the character of the work. In converting “The Four Seasons” for an instrument that cannot sustain like a violin, Avital often had to resort to rapid tremelos in the sustained lines of the slow movements of “Spring” and “Summer.” That made these Venetian-made concertos seem more Italian-sounding than ever before.

Once in a while, Avital departed from merely tracing the solo violin part, playing arpeggios in the slow movement of “Autumn.” Some of the rapid passages sounded hair-raisingly difficult on a mandolin — and Avital didn’t disguise the effort, digging in with a wrist seemingly made of rubber.

Finally, Avital added a solo encore from his “Between Worlds” CD, “Bucimis,” a boisterous Bulgarian folk dance that culminated in furious strumming with the energy of a rock ’n’ roller.

The post-intermission symphonic closer was by Brahms, but not from his usual pile of 11 orchestral standards. Instead, De Ridder chose the early Serenade No. 1, an underexposed gem in which the emerging Brahms signatures are in place, although stamped with the lingering fingerprints of Beethoven — especially the fifth movement. It sounded a bit choppy at first in the hands of the bearded conductor, whose hair flew around as he vigorously gestured, but the L.A. Phil’s playing became smoother soon enough, with plenty of infectious rhythm in the final movements.

The turnout was high, possibly in five figures, for a Thursday night, and I’ll give you three words as to why: “The Four Seasons.”

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