One attraction of this release, which made classical best-seller charts in the autumn of 2023, is that it lives up to its title; the music is generally obscure, and it is well worthy of revival. It might be called "Unjustly Forgotten Arias." These are countertenor, originally castrato arias from the late Baroque period (or early Classical, depending on how one looks at it), composed between 1748 and 1770. Texts are by
Pietro Metastasio
, the greatest librettist of the age, and there are several instances in which multiple composers set the same one. So the album is of interest to serious students of the period. For the general listener, though, the attraction is the voice of countertenor
Philippe Jaroussky
, which is in fine form. One might even argue that this material fits his now middle-aged instrument perfectly. There are some fiery runs of the type that made him famous, but these are, for the most part, arias in which sheer passagework is beginning to break up into more variegated melodic expression. They are quite virtuosic, but this is not always a question of runs of 16th notes. Instead, there are big leaps of an octave (or even two), and the composers force the singer down into a lower register, even down to low C;
Jaroussky
's low notes are rich and tough. Some of the pieces are melodically quite attractive; try "Per quel paterno amplesso" from
Johann Christian Bach
's
Artaserse
, probably the most famous opera libretto of the time and one in which composers strove to outdo each other.
gets excellent support from
Le Concert de la Loge
under conductor
Julien Chauvin
on an album that makes an especially strong entry in
's distinguished catalog. ~ James Manheim