When Avi Avital first picked up a mandolin aged eight growing up in Be’er Sheva, Israel, little did he know that years later, he would become the Italian-born instrument’s international ambassador. The first mandolin soloist to become an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, Avital’s latest release for the label – Art of the Mandolin – is, in his own words, “a portrait of an instrument at once familiar and unknown”; an exploration of “the essence of the mandolin” featuring only repertoire exclusively written for the instrument spanning from the Baroque era to the present day.

The new album is released internationally on Friday 13 November.