Philippe Jaroussky in LA

Just as Rolando Villazon became my key to the opera world, Philippe Jaroussky became my gateway to Baroque opera. It was through him initially that I discovered the amazing depth of Handel’s music and the unconditional intimacy in Vivaldi’s music.

So I was very fortunate enough to go to see him in the LA concert recently featuring these amazing composers.

It was backed by Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell who also played harpsichord. They’re from Cleveland, Ohio. The LA concert was the very first night of their US and Europe tours with Philippe Jaroussky.

If I describe AFBO’s overall sound quality on the stage in 3 words, they would be “agile”, “tight” and “dry” on the high ends. Their sound was almost little too dry and less dramatic for my taste especially if it’s coming from 14 instrumentalists including 7 many violinists. Their music sounds much better on YouTube clips than on the stage.Though most of the instrumentalists including 5 males in the concert are not the same people in the clip, even in the concert, they played much more agile, tighter and drier music than these clips.

Especially the violin sound of the concertmaster, Olivier Brault was very firm, tight but driest violin sound I’ve ever heard from any violinist. I liked the sound by the associate concertmaster, Johanna Novom (I think it’s her name) better, which had more saturating colors. I also liked the rich expressive sound by the principal cellolist, Rene Schiffer and he did wonderful job in Vivaldi’s “Concerto in G minor for two cellos”.

But more than above of all, I think their music style fits into current Philippe Jaroussky’s artistic needs, as in his newer projects, he picks orchestras with this type of mature, masculine tight sound where he can “sing with full body” more than vocal level as in his album “Caldara”.

And he was the real shinning star of the night. He gave away very high quality music. He had the laser-beam bright light high voice with plenty of weight. And his singing expression was agile, vibrant and very keen from the beginning to the end.

He sung Handel in the first half and sung Vivaldi in the last half in his 2-½ hour concert.

I’d never heard the first 3 Handel arias he sung before. I loved specially when he sung aria “Ho perso il carob en” from opera “Il parnasso in festa” which I still don’t know the meaning of the song but it was emotionally deep. 

After Jeannette Sorrell jokingly said, “joy takes the forms of many notes”, he also made my day by singing my favorite Ariondante’s colorful coloratura aria, “Con l’ali di constanza” which I’d never heard him sing before.

He also sung my favorite Rinaldo’s aria “Venti turbini” as the first encore, which was wonderful.

The first Vivaldi aria he sung was “Se mai senti spirrti” which I’d never heard before also was very beautiful piece.

He also sung my all time favorite Vivaldi aria “Vedro con mio dilletto” exquisitely. And as the second encore, he sung Porpora’s “Alto Giove”, which once sent me into trans before. He sings these two arias like no others ever could.

As the third encore, he sung Handel’s beautiful ultimate tree hugger love song, “Ombra mai fu”. He sung this aria much better with more emotional input than when he sung it on YouTube clips.

And as the last fanfare of fireworks, he sung Vivaldi’s big scale virtuosic aria “Fra le procelle” which was just great.

The concert was his West Coast debut. It might be because of this, he looked very intense in the beginning. But towards the end, he got more smile and literally, he took his tie off with Vivaldi. The more he sung, the more his voice became richer and vibrant and the same time, the audience’s applause and standing ovation got bigger. I wished he could stay longer to sing more.

When I describe his music, I have to use the description I used to describe Christina Pluhar’s music. His music also reminds me “home you always long for and want to come back to”. Jean-Christophe Spinosi said his voice reminds him of childhood. Others describe his voice as angel’s. I guess somehow we all are talking about the same thing.

I love the sensitive, meditative and spiritual qualities in his voice with enlivened realism and deep human emotion in his singing. He is truly amazing, one of kind artist.