L'Arpeggiata

Absolutely by chance, I watched a concert in Mezzo - Rossi's Orfeo - by l'Arpeggiata. I had never listened to the music before, by I was very impressed. The leader is Cristina Pluhar, I think it was the name.

They were here in Lisbon this month, by I was away and could not make it.

Any opinions?

 

36 reads and not a single response: I guess it means no one knows l'Arpeggiata.

A very odd group, very improvisatory, very alive and emotionally contagious. Also, very good technically.

Worth a listen, I think.

 

I love L'arpeggiata, they're very much into doing old stuff in a jazzy or even arab-y way (20th urban music such as Chaabi) which is quite the thing in Gaul at the moment.

 

Yes, that was what I thought (I don't know about the araby way, but certainly jazzy). I did not know the music, so I can't tell how much they improvised, but it seemed to me to be a great lot.

But the scores really tell us little on the way music was played (Handel springs to mind) and music was very ornamented, so it is a possibility.

They also seemed to be enjoying their music making a great deal. In fact that was perhaps what I enjoyed the most.

 

Agree totally with you there. They bring the music to life. Of course I like most of the people who are doing this right now, such as Paolo Pandolfi and Vincent Dumestre.
I've also been listening to some old-school old stuff. Deller and Leonhardt (with Harnoncourt and many others) playing the music of Bach, Handel and the English Renaissance. This used to strike me as rather rigid and stuffy. Boring even. Maybe I've changed, but I enjoy the delicacy of these performances and Deller's voice is simply a thing of wonder.

 

A few years ago I heard some extracts from their disc "All' Improvviso" (Alpha 512). It was a review on BBC Radio 3's CD review programme. As a result, I dashed out and bought it. It's a favourite disc of mine.
It made quite a stir, especially in France, and for a while France Musique used Track 12 as the theme for one of their morning programmes.
The group made quite a few recordings for Alpha, but I think they've recently moved to Virgin - a good catch for them.