His performances at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris and at the 2024 Męskie granie made Jakub Józef Orliński famous also outside the circle of Baroque music lovers. During this period, the countertenor voice of Generation Z took care of his artistic development and released two albums! For his upcoming visit to the NFM, he will join forces with Wrocław Baroque Orchestra led by Jarosław Thiel. In the first part of the concert, they will present sacred compositions by Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach. After the intermission, they will lead us into the world of George Frideric Handel’s operas.
Composed in 1712, Stabat Mater is Vivaldi's earliest known sacred composition. It was first performed in the church of Santa Maria della Pace in Brescia. If we associate the Venetian with his energetic concertos, we will be surprised how raw and focused his setting of the text of the medieval poem about the suffering of the Virgin Mary standing under the cross is. A completely different mood prevails in the first aria from the cantata Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust BWV 170 by Johann Sebastian Bach, first performed in 1726 in Leipzig. The words of the piece, written by Georg Christian Lehms, tell us of the peace and joy of the saved in Heaven. They are to inspire the living to live virtuously on Earth. The sound of the music follows the meaning of the text, taking on a darker character only when it speaks of weakness and sin.
In Venice, where Vivaldi was born and which was the main place of his activity, George Frideric Handel’s Agrippina premiered on the second day of Christmas 1709. Carnival was already in progress on the Adriatic at that time, and the composer was to turn twenty-five in two months. Orliński will sing two arias of Ottone – a Roman general appointed by Emperor Claudius as heir to the throne as a reward for saving Claudius’s life. However, in order to become a ruler, the soldier must give up his love for Poppea and agree to her marriage to Nero. Opera lovers will easily recognise characters from Claudio Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea among these names. It is no wonder that Handel’s Agrippina is sometimes jokingly referred to as a prequel to L’incoronazione by Monteverdi, decades earlier also associated with the capital of the magnificent La Serenissima.