Malena

BBC Music Magazine 5 stars; Music Web International: Recording of the Month; Gramophone Editor's Choice; Diapason d'Or.
Great cabaret artists sing into your soul, and as this one–a severely Swedish mezzo, light in vocal colouring and texture–barely gets beyond your skin, it doesn't make for a collector's disc. But what she lacks, her pianist–also Swedish, but more intimate and interesting–supplies, with just the qualities demanded by this kind of short, sharp, instant-attraction repertory where you either grab your listeners' attention in the first three bars or not at all.

A hymn to nature envisioned by the unparalleled Christina Pluhar, featuring the extraordinary Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman, in a program that embraces the four winds! This is a unique blend that L'Arpeggiata, under Pluhar's direction, masterfully creates—drawing from the rumblings of the sea, sunny canarios, cuckoos and nightingales, whispers and tempests. With a fusion of baroque repertoire, traditional music, and improvisations, it promises a vibrant celebration of vocal and instrumental artistry, all under the banner of the nourishing earth.