Jakub Jozef Orlinski has emerged from a crowd of talented young countertenors with his persona as the breakdancing countertenor, absolute catnip to interviewers. He hasn't let his new star quality go to his head, for here, he offers a program of largely unfamiliar music, with nine world-recorded premieres among the vocal pieces. The program starts off with a long scene from
Monteverdi's
L'incoronazione di Poppea, and there are a few other hits, but even the composer names here --
Claudio Saracini,
Giovanni Cesare Netti,
Carlo Francesco Pollarolo -- will be unknown to all but specialists and were dug out of the books by
Orlinski's musicologist collaborator,
Yannis Francois. Library collections will want the album on this basis alone, and taken together, the program offers a wider variety of early Baroque music than is generally available. Hear the folkish
Tamburetta (from a larger
Concerto a 3 voci and continuo) of composer
Adam Jarzebski.
Orlinski sings a great variety of music here, and of course, he is going to do some of them better than others. His voice is powerful and muscular (must be all that breakdancing), and in a commanding operatic piece like
Pietro Paolo Cappellini's, he is quite compelling. In the quieter madrigals like
Giulio Caccini's
Amarilli, there are sweeter singers, but
Orlinski's ongoing collaboration with the instrumental group
Il Pomo d'Oro is beginning to pay dividends as mutual awareness between musicians and singer is very high. This album landed on classical best-seller lists in the autumn of 2023, and it seems likely to contribute to
Orlinski's growing reputation. ~ James Manheim
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