Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | The Fairy Queen, Z 629: one charming night

An eclectic programme running from Purcell to Nina Simone kept with the Festival's tradition of presenting up-and-coming classical musicians.

A varied programme of harpsichord pieces interleaves with songs from Shakespeare and the following century.

While maybe not for the musical puritans, this was the perfect showcase for an exceptional group of musicians to demonstrate their formidable technical and interpretative talents and to respectfully give some new vitality to the magical works of Purcell.

L'Arpeggiata fascinate, amuse, move to tears - in not even two hours.

The countertenor voice seems to polarise opinion like no other - you either love it or hate it, there is little middle ground - and even amongst the aficionados (in whose number I count myself), there can be strong, almost tribal allegiances to one school or another and sometimes to individual proponents.