A superstar of the contemporary music scene, Jakub Józef Orliński returns to Warsaw with a programme consisting of early arias and songs. Renaissance and Baroque vocal works will be heard with the accompaniment of a piano, played by the singer’s frequent artistic partner, Michał Biel. The combination of early repertoire with a modern instrument – prototypes of which were already being developed at the time when some of the pieces in the programme were composed – emphasises the universality of the song genre and its sister form, the aria. In Polish, the word pieśń (‘song’) is associated with serious and solemn music, as opposed to the diminutive form piosenka, which is perceived as a lighter and more entertaining form. However, this distinction can be misleading, as in many other languages the equivalent word for pieśń (e.g. ‘song’, ‘chanson’, ‘canzona’) refers to both ‘serious’ and ‘light’ repertoire. What is more, many contemporary artists willingly cross the boundaries between these worlds: Orliński reaches for light music, while popular artists – such as Sting – willingly perform early music, e.g. by John Dowland. The latter’s work – alongside that of Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel – will feature on Orliński’s recital programme. The popularity of Dowland’s and Purcell’s melancholic songs in various musical circles testifies not only to the power of their compositions, but also to the fact that this genre – regardless of the form and the time of composition – is capable of conveying the deepest human emotions.

Bartłomiej Gembicki