#LetsBaRock
Jakub Józef Orlínski (vocals)
Aleksander Debicz (keyboards & arrangements) 
Wojciech Guminski (bass guitar & double bass, Moog)
Marcin Ulanowski (drums)
Madison Nonoa (soprano) 
rec. 2023, Church Studios, London
Sung texts enclosed
Reviewed as MP3 download
Erato 2173 239226 [62]

I have admired Orlinski’s singing since I first heard him a couple of years ago, not least for his recent recording of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice – see Daniel Floyd’s glowing review here. His most recent solo album is titled “#Lets BaRock”, and the capital R indicates that this is a crossover album. 

The basic musical material is mostly derived from the baroque but transformed into rock with everything that implies. Orlinski’s friend and cooperator Aleksander Debicz has arranged all the music, and also composed an intro, a finale and also a toccata, which is a kind of interlude halfway through the programme, with a recited text by Orlinski, who here employs his natural baritone voice. He is an inventive and sensitive arranger, who adjusts admirably to the various moods of the music, from hefty hard rock with lots of electronics to simple ballad style with just a discreet piano. 

Hard rock, if that is the correct term, is hardly my cup of tea, but I can digest it in small doses. The melodic material is mostly rather well-known, but there are some rarities. One is Alla  Gente from Il Faraone Sommerso, an opera composed in 1709 by the little known Francesco Nicola Fago, ‘II Tarantino’. Fago is possibly better remembered as a teacher, with Leonardo Leo and Nicola Jommelli among his more prominent pupils. The melody is nice and the singing is beautiful, and the accompaniment is discreet with piano and bass. Purcell’s Strike the viol is a more swinging affair that grows in intensity and ends in ecstasy, while Fairest Isle from King Arthur is cool with piano, bass and drums in the background. Oblivion, culled from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea is slow and rather recessed. Here, and in practically all the songs, Orlinski employs a kind of crooning style, beautiful but rather pale compared with his full-voice counter-tenor. In Purcell’s up-tempo Sound the trumpet he imitates the trumpet very realistically, before he turns to Handel’s seldom heard Amadigi di Gaula from 1715. Pena Tiranna is tranquil and beautiful but is concluded with a noisy postlude that effectively destroys the mood. Purcell’s lovely Music for a While gets its due without too much electronics, and in a virtuoso reconstruction of Monteverdi’s Zefiro torna Orlinski is supported by the excellent soprano Madison Nonoa. This is a high spot indeed. In the eleventh hour we also get a number with the remaining baroque great (bar Bach who doesn’t fit in here), namely Vivaldi. The aria from Il Giustino is beautiful and the accompaniment is rather simple – to begin with … The remaining two pieces left me unperturbed. 

I’m afraid I may seem very negative about this disc, but as I said earlier, this isn’t quite my cup of tea. Let me just say that all the songs are performed with the utmost professionalism and can be warmly recommended to everyone who is partial to this genre.

Göran Forsling

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Contents
1 INTRO [2:56]
Aleksander Dębicz b.1988 
2 Alla Gente [6:27]
Francesco Nicola Fago 1677–1745  
after “Alla gente a Dio diletta”  
from Il faraone sommerso
3 Strike the Viol [4:47]
Henry Purcell 1659–1695 
after “Strike the viol, touch the lute”  
from Come Ye Sons of Art Z.323  
(Ode for Queen Mary’s Birthday)
 4 Fairest Isle [4:12]
Henry Purcell 
after “Fairest Isle” from King Arthur Z.628
 5 Oblivion [4:08]
Claudio Monteverdi 1567–1643 
after “Oblivion soave”  
from L’incoronazione di Poppea SV 308
6 Sound the Trumpet [1:44]
 Henry Purcell 
after “Sound the trumpet”  
from Come Ye Sons of Art Z.323  
(Ode for Queen Mary’s Birthday)
7 Pena Tiranna [7:11]
George Frideric Handel 1685–1759  
after “Pena tiranna io sento al core”  
from Amadigi di Gaula HWV 11
8  TOCCATA 1 [4:55]
 Aleksander Dębicz 
9 Music for a While [4:05]
Henry Purcell 
after “Music for a while” from  
the Incidental music to Oedipus Z.583
 10 Zefiro Torna [7;13]
Claudio Monteverdi 
after “Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti” 
from Scherzi musicali SV 251
 with Madison Nonoa soprano
11 Vedrò [6:08]
 Antonio Vivaldi 1678–1741 
after “Vedrò con mio diletto”  
from Il Giustino RV 717
 12 FINALE [4:45] 
Aleksander Dębicz 
13 Moja i Twoja Nadzieja [4:06]
Piotr Banach b.1965 
Moja i Twoja Nadzieja