What a wonderful mandolin sound – full, round, powerful, responsive, expressive, and sensitive. Soloists Juan Carlos Muñoz and Mary V. Pavon with their group Artemadoulin focus on the London scene of the 18th century, when musicians from Italy brought the southern sunshine to England with the mandolin. This offers a wonderful repertoire featuring court dances and melodic influences. The various pieces become immediately and throughout captivating as they are performed in a lively tone, with plenty of mood and empathy. The compositions sometimes contain solo masterpieces for the ensemble's instruments, which also demonstrates the expertise of the entire composition. Only in the album's very sparse vocal work would a similarly impressive solo strength have added more brilliance. Fortunately, this is not of great importance given the abundance.
© Wolfgang Armborist
Mandolin in London
Acts c. Weber, Valentin, Merici, Arrigoni, Oswald and others
Marina Bartoli (soprano), Juan Carlos Muñoz and Marie V. Pavon (baroque mandolin), artemidolin
German Harmonia Mundi
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