L'Arpeggiata

L’Arpeggiata is a vocal and instrumental ensemble devoted to authentic performance. Its composition and personnel are flexible, but at its centre is its musical director and conductor, Christina Pluhar, whose enthusiasm and expertise galvanise the performances of her chosen musicians. The ensemble calls upon the skills of the best instrumentalists in Europe and its programmes focus on the early Baroque period in Italy. Also collaborating with L’Arpeggiata are outstanding soloists from the worlds of historically informed Baroque performance, traditional music and other musical genres such as jazz, or other fields of artistic expression such as dance or theatre. The ensemble’s high standards of artistry are now universally recognised. Since it was founded in 2000, L’Arpeggiata has been devoted to exploring the rich repertoire of lesser-known composers of the early Baroque – Roman, Neapolitan, French and Spanish. The group’s credo is expressed in a new vocal approach based on study of the recitar cantando and deeply influenced by traditional music. There is also an emphasis on instrumental improvisation, research into instrumentation – explored in its pure Baroque richness – a quest for vocal authenticity in traditional music, and the creation of landmark staged shows. The group’s recordings have been universally praised by both critics and public. The first, La Villanella, dedicated to the music of Girolamo Kapsberger, was nominated “Event of the Month” in the September 2001 edition of France’s Répertoire des disques and received the Premio Internazionale del disco per la musica italiana. Its second CD Homo fugit velut umbra, dedicated to the music of Stefano Landi, was similarly praised by the press: scored as a ¨10¨ by Répertoire magazine and rated a Diapason Discovery in France, it was CD of the Week for BBC Radio 3, CD of the Month for Amadeus in Italy and awarded the Prix Exellentia by Pizzicato, Luxembourg. The following disc, La Tarantella brought together Baroque specialists and traditional musicians from southern Italy, an encounter which was welcomed with a ¨10¨ by Répertoire, as CD of the Week by France Musique, CD of the Month by Toccata (Germany), and received a Cannes Classical Award in 2004. The group’s fourth disc, All’Improvviso, which came out in June 2004, married jazz and the Baroque, while December 2004 brought Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo by Emilio di’ Cavalieri, a co-production with the Utrecht Early Music Festival, and Los Impossibles, recorded for Na?ve, brought interaction with the King’s Singers and other outstanding soloists. In 2008, L’Arpeggiata and Virgin Classics launched their collaboration with a recording of Monteverdi entitled Teatro d’Amore, scheduled for release in early 2009. It features Philippe Jaroussky, Nuria Rial, Cyril Auvity and others. L’Arpeggiata’s work has been consistently praised by critics and audiences. The group’s substantial discography and numerous awards are complemented by its appearances in programmes for TV channels Arte and Mezzo, including Olivier Simonnet’s Marc-Antoine Charpentier (2005), un automne musical à Versailles and a documentary on the ensemble, Rencontres Improbables (2006), released on DVD on Na?ve, which will also release a number of CDs, including Los Impossibles. Since it was founded, and in keeping with its growing reputation, L'Arpeggiata has appeared at Europe’s major festivals, such as Sablé sur Sarthe, Utrecht, Flanders Festival (Antwerp), Vézelay, Arques la Bataille, Namur, Melk, Bruges, Ambronay, Pontoise, St Petersburg, Bordeaux, Sully-sur-Loire, Haut Jura, La Vézère, Darocca, Torroella de Montgri, the Atlantic Festival in the Azores, Krems, Potsdam and Barcelona. Among its 500 international appearances between 2006 and 2008 were prestigious engagements in the UK, Switzerland, Israel, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong and Australia. L’Arpeggiata is supported by the Fondation Orange and France’s Ministry of Culture (Drac Ile de France). It is also a member of the Fédération des Ensembles Vocaux et Instrumentaux Spécialisés (Févis) and has received support for specific projects from Onda, Spedidam and Adami. Christina PLUHAR, harp, theorbo and conductor Christina Pluhar studied at the university of her native city of Graz, in Austria, before discovering her deep affinity with the music of the Baroque and the Renaissance. She devoted herself to the lute, theorbo and Baroque guitar, which she studied at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland with Hopkinson Smith. She studied Baroque harp with Mara Galassi at the Schuola Civica di Milano and attended masterclasses with Paul O’Dettes, Andrew Lawrence King and Jesper Christensen. In 1992, with the La Fenice ensemble, she won first prize at the Malm? Early Music Competition. That same year she moved to Paris, going on to appear as soloist and continuo-player at major festivals and theatres. Her repertoire includes solo music for Renaissance and Baroque lute, Baroque guitar, archlute, theorbo and Baroque harp (16th, 17th and 18th-century). Among ensembles with which she has appeared are La Fenice (Jean Tubery), Hesperion XXI (Jordi Savall), Il Giardino Armonico, Concerto Soave (Maria Cristina Kiehr), Accordone (Marco Beasley), Elyma (Gabriel Garrido), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), Ricercar Consort (Philippe Pierlot), La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roi (Jean-Claude Malgoire) and Cantus C?lln (Konrad Jungh?nel). Among conductors for whom she has played orchestral continuo are René Jacobs, Ivor Bolton, Alessandro di Marchi, Marc Minkowski and Gabriel Garrido. Since 2001, she has been assistant to Ivor Bolton at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. She is the founder of the ensemble L’Arpeggiata, with which she has recorded a series of CDs, reaping the highest praise from media such as Répertoire, Diapason d’Or, Pizzicato, BBC Radio 3 and France Musique. As a guest conductor, she appeared in 2005 with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and in 2007 with the European Baroque Orchestra (in the UK and on a European tour) and Portugal’s Divino Sospiro Orchestra, which she will conduct again in 2009. In addition to her activities as conductor and soloist, since 1999 she has been Professor of Baroque Harp at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague and gives masterclasses at the University of Graz.