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. The new album "Terra Mater" by baroque expert Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L'Arpeggiata focuses on works by traveling composers. In the 17th and 18th centuries, there was a lively exchange of music and musicians within the lively exchange of music and musicians. Venice was considered a place of longing for culture lovers, but the musicians trained there were at least as much in demand. Princely courts in Dresden, Vienna and Bayreuth courted composers such as Francesco Gasparini and Giovanni Bononcini. And so many works were created far from their Italian homeland. Copies of compositions also spread the Italian style throughout Europe. With George Frideric Handel, who was drawn from Germany first to Italy and then to London, Pluhar's gaze wanders to England. Londoners celebrated ballad operas frenetically at the Drury Lane Theatre. These genre mixes reveal that the British already had a penchant for quirky humor back then. Ballad operas poked fun at other works. Even Handel's serious operatic works were not immune to this. Mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman joins forces with L'Arpeggiata and Christina Pluhar to present a few of these rarely performed pieces.