It’s an-all singing, all-dancing… Baroque recital. Jakub Józef Orliński’s tour with the ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro has recently made a stop at the Berlin Philharmonic, giving a scrumptious taste of their new project, titled Beyond. With a 90-minute album already released, Beyond marks a new stage of Orliński’s collaboration with Yannis François, intended to – quite literally – give a voice to lesser-known Baroque composers by pairing them with some big names of the repertoire. In this case, Orliński and François decided to introduce the audience to the fairly obscure works of Giovanni Cesare Netti. But the rediscovery of forgotten scores was only one element of an airtight, exuberant show featuring music, acting – and breakdancing.
Mimicking many song cycles, Beyond traces a journey of tormented young passion which then turns into a more cautious reflection on love. However, rather than embodying the voice of a single composer, it does so by collecting its material from different, if compatible sources. The unity of the programme, which alternates arias, cantatas, canzoni and instrumental intermezzos, is maintained on paper by thematic and tonal continuity between the pieces. On stage, this translated into an incredibly smooth performance where Orliński and Il Pomo d’Oro calibrated their pace and interactions with playful chemistry.
In full diva style, the countertenor entered the stage wrapped in a dark cape and walking around pensively, a spotlight following his steps. The first aria, “E pur io torno qui” from L’incoronazione di Poppea, set the mood for the recital. The warmth of Orliński’s alto, together with his control over its volume, was complemented by the accompaniment, mostly reliant on strings and carefully measured in its density. The evening then moved on to other notable examples of the repertoire, such as Caccini’s Amarilli, mia bella, featuring Margherita Burattini’s beautiful harp obbligato, and Frescobaldi’s Così mi disprezzate, which gave Orliński the opportunity to use coloratura for dramatic effect.
And yet, the show still had a few aces up its sleeve. During the instrumental breaks, Orliński wandered around the dark hall carrying a portable light – a visual rendition of Strozzi’s L’amante consolato – and, more memorably, caused a sensation among the audience by starting to breakdance during the sinfonia from Pallavicino’s Demetrio. A full scene from Netti’s La Filli followed, returning to a more conventional, and yet captivating, sung-only performance. After a moment of comic relief – Netti’s “Quanto più la donna invecchia” from L'Adamiro, for which the countertenor used the cape as a head veil and played with grotesque, broken phrasing – the concert came to an end with Moratelli’s “Lungi dai nostri cor”, once again proof of Orliński and Il Pomo d’Oro’s strong connection. The ensemble’s timbral variety was a determining factor in the overwhelmingly positive outcome of the evening.