Jakub Józef Orlinski with New York Baroque Inc. • Weill Recital Hall • January 31 2019

This was the fourth timeI got to see Orlinski perform since his graduation concert at Juilliard in 2017 (I think?), but the first time in solo recital with a full ensemble.  Fantastic, highly engaging and engaged musicians. 

            Jakub has everything: a glorious voice, angelic looks, charm, sexy physique, an extremely expressive face, a winning, youthful personality that leaps off the stage. There is about him a palpable joy for what he is doing and he shows welcoming signs of not taking himself too seriously.  If he learns to shape his physical performance with the same refinement he applies to his voice; if he manages to, down to road, create a more artful stage presence without losing his natural air or coming across as conceited (which I don’t think would be in his nature, anyway), any audience would go completely nuts over him. Right now, he is a sorcerer’s apprentice with fantastic talent. Once he becomes a full-fledged sorcerer, he will bewitch everyone, and he will become an absolute rock star, just like the historic castrati. His vocal artistry is already at the highest level. Let the body follow to meet it up there.