Amo!- I am a lover

When a thread is put under tension, when it is stretched with fear and rips, releasing the tension and freeing the emotions, people fly so far they lose their minds … They are lost, raving madmen, and their surrendered bodies sing words before a paralysed audience which make no sense to anyone but themselves. This is called delirium.Catherine Clément

Isn’t music the medium in which to live out desires and passions to the point of excess and self-destruction? Don’t the overflowing hearts and the swell of great emotions justify overstepping society’s rules though the power of music? And don’t musicians take the side of anyone whose heart runs over?

Christina Pluhar’s concerts have frequently been described as ›baroque jam sessions‹ - and the vitality, lust for life and spontaneity which this comparison suggests can be felt in every note and every phrasing. You simply don’t believe your ears at the intoxicating, profligate and colourful skill with which she and her ensemble L’Arpeggiata embrace the possibilities of improvisation. Their capacity for feeling brings music to life so that it seems like it was composed yesterday.

At this year’s Ruhrtriennale we will experience the creation of one of these extraordinary baroque/jazz concerts to which Christina Pluhar has invited a rich array of artists and friends. Most notable among them is the most celebrated countertenor of our time, Philippe Jaroussky, with his beguilingly sensual voice. A special highlight will be the coming together of three famous harpists: baroque harpist Christina Pluhar, jazz harpist Deborah Henson-Conant and Lincoln Almada with his Paraguayan harp cover a spectrum of delirium as colourful as it is thrilling, stretching from the expressionistic emotions of the baroque through the sensual kaleidoscope of tango to blues and extravagant jazz.

Commissioned by the Ruhrtriennale.