Pluhar, Jaroussky and Fray: Not a Law Firm, But Three Virgin Classics Artists Bound for the Big Apple

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Three remarkable Virgin Classics artists are headed this fall to New York, where they will appear in two concerts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. Early music maverick Christina Pluhar, leading her dynamic Baroque ensemble L’Arpeggiata, will team up with French star countertenor Philippe Jaroussky in a performance on Friday, October 29 that will feature “Teatro d’amore”, a Monteverdi-inspired program recorded previously for Virgin Classics. The concert marks their Zankel Hall debut. The following month, the charismatic young French pianist David Fray returns to New York City to perform a program of Schubert and Bach, composers who were featured on Fray’s first three much acclaimed Virgin Classics albums. The recital on Tuesday, November 16 will mark Fray’s New York recital debut.

With their singular approach combining early music performance practice with the inspiration of folk, jazz and popular music, Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata present audiences with an experience that might be best described as a Baroque jam session. At its roots, L'Arpeggiata is devoted to instrumental improvisation, as well as taking a different approach to singing influenced by traditional folk music, and creating and staging attractive live shows. Reviewing Teatro d’amore, the group’s debut release on Virgin Classics, a reporter for BBC Radio 3 praised the “unusually gifted musicians who work in that grey area where art music meets folk.” The reporter continued, “Here they're exploring the simple repeated bass lines and harmonies that have formed the basis for all kinds of music, in every continent, from the earliest dance music, through folk, classical, romantic and contemporary art music, jazz, and of course pop and rock.” A review of the album in the All Music Guide noted, “These performances shimmer with vibrant energy.”

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