If Music...

LPA

1. PURCELL - Music for a While, Oedipus, Z. 583
2. PURCELL - Strike the Viol, Come, Ye Sons of Art Z. 323
3. PURCELL - What Power Art Thou? ("The Cold Song"), King Arthur or The British Worthy Z. 628
4. PURCELL - Sweeter Than Roses, Pausanius, the Betrayer of His Country Z. 585
5. PURCELL - O Lead Me To Some Peaceful gloom, Bonduca, or The British Heroine Z. 574
6. PURCELL - If Music Be the Food of Love, Z. 379c (Third Version)

LPB

1. HANDEL - Ombra mai fu, Serse HWV 40, Act I, Aria, Serse
2. HANDEL - Un zeffiro spirò, Rodelinda HWV 19, Act III, Aria, Unulfo
3. HANDEL - Siam prossimi al porto, Rinaldo HWV 7, Act II, Aria, Eustazio
4. HANDEL - Furibondo spira il vento, Partenope HWV 27, Act II, Aria, Arsace
5. HANDEL - Where'er You Walk, Semele HWV 58, Act 2, Aria, Jupiter

If music… showcases star countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński in 17 songs and arias by three composers of the Baroque era: Purcell, Handel and Fux. Perhaps unexpectedly, he is partnered not by an ensemble of period instruments but by a pianist – his long-standing colleague Michał Biel, who draws on all the possibilities of a modern Steinway grand. 

“On this album we have combined arias and songs that inspire and speak to us, “ says Jakub Józef Orliński. Some of them are quite well known, but others are less popular. I have been familiar with many of them for years, though I have to admit that, in some cases, I needed to mature artistically to be able to do what I envisioned when I first encountered them – Handel’s ‘Ombra mai fu’ and Purcell’s ‘Cold Song’, for example ... I love thinking of albums as pages out of my diary. They are a statement of where I am as an artist … They solidify my interpretations, which sometimes change over time.”