By Don Heckman
“Handel and Vivaldi Fireworks.” It’s an accurate title for the remarkable evening of music that took place at Royce Hall last Friday. And all the more so because so much of it is rarely heard on concert stages, and even more rarely with the authenticity and bravura of the Apollo’s Fire baroque orchestra and the voice of sopranist/countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.
In her notes for the program, Jeannette Sorrell, the vivacious and authoritative Music Director of Apollo’s Fire, asked listeners to decide whether Vivaldi deserves “a place beside Handel on the baroque opera stage.” And that’s an intriguing question, given the vital significance of opera in the 18th century music world, and given Vivaldi’s legendary reputation as the pathfinder composer of concertos in the ritornello form.
Phlippe Jaroussky
The relatively austere Royce Hall stage, peopled only with the Apollo’s Fire players, could not, of course, provide the sort of dramatic stagecraft that was so vital to baroque opera. But, in the soaring voice and the gripping theatricality of Jaroussky’s performances, in the dynamic orchestral support of Apollo’s Fire, one could experience a surprisingly convincing aura of what presentations of works such as Oreste,Imeneo and Giustino must have been like, heard live.
Singing seven arias from operas by Vivaldi and Handel, Jaroussky was mesmerizing. Flowing with consummate ease through intricate, bel canto passages, he masterfully displayed the technical ease associated with such 18th century castrati superstars as Ferri and Farinelli. But the timbre of his voice, reaching from his burnished brass middle range to airy head tones, was equally extraordinary. Add to that his presentation. Garbed in a dark suit, he nonetheless – via gesture, manner and vocal intensity – expressed the dramatic heart of each of the brief roles he portrayed.
Apollo's Fire
Apollo’s Fire added their own pyrotechnics. Superbly accompanying Jaroussky, they also added equally gripping musical moments of their own. The spotlight performance of cellists Rene Schiffer and Steuart Pincombe in the Vivaldi Concerto in G minor for Two Cellos, for example, was a stunning evocation of all the reasons why Vivaldi was a virtual pop star in his own time. And the Concerto Grosso “La Follia” after Sonata XII – featuring violinists Olivier Brault and Johanna Novom – authentically revived the intensity of Vivaldi’s take on the rhythms of a passionate Mediterranean dance.
So, yes, “Handel and Vivaldi Fireworks” it was. Done brilliantly and memorably. And, for this listener, evoking a strong desire to hear some of those forty-nine Vivaldi operas just now beginning to find their way to publication.
