Vienna Mandolin Stories is Alon Sariel’s first full concerto album, inviting listeners on a journey through late-18th- and early-19th-century Vienna. The album features works for mandolin and orchestra by Haydn, Mozart, Krähmer, and Paisiello. While some pieces were originally composed for mandolin, others have been skillfully adapted by Sariel. The album thrives on Sariel’s inventive and playful approach, as represented in “Haydn’s Mandolin Concerto”, an imaginative rearrangement combining movements from different concertos, including one by Malzat long misattributed to Haydn. Highlights also include the “bluegrass” cadence in the slow movement of the “Haydn” concerto and the clever nod to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier in Sariel’s arrangement of Mozart’s Andante for Flute and Orchestra. Sariel brings to light Ernest Krähmer’s works for mandolin and orchestra, recently found at the Bavarian State Library and recorded here for the first time. The period musicians of the Kölner Akademie, under the direction of Michael Alexander Willens, deliver an ideal soundscape for these vibrant and colorful works.

Alon Sariel is one of today’s most versatile plucked-string performers, earning recognition as a multi-instrumentalist and a captivating Bach interpreter. Following the releases of Plucked Bach (2022), Plucked Bach II (2023), and Schubert’s Mandolin (2024) on PENTATONE, he now presents his first concerto recording. The Kölner Akademie and its music director Michael Alexander Willens, make their PENTATONE debut with this recording.

Released physically on standard CD.