Philippe Jaroussky, one of the best countertenors in the world and the most admired of his generation, is another of the iconic voices joining the Canary Islands Music Festival this year. He is considered a star of lyrical music and is one of those responsible for the fact that the countertenor’s voice has ceased to be a rarity to conquer a respected position. Accompanied by guitarist Thibaut García, he can be heard tomorrow, Saturday 29, at the Tenerife Auditorium (8pm), and on Sunday 30 at the Pérez Galdós Theater in Gran Canaria (7pm).
Both musicians will perform in these concerts some of the ‘treasures’ included in the recent album they have recorded together, entitled ‘À sa guitare’ (the name of a piece by Poulenc), an album in which, carried away by the sound of the guitar , launched to give voice to a musical journey through the centuries with stops in France, Great Britain, Australia, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Argentina and the United States. It is a “a selection of jewels that we found while reading a lot of different music”, admits Jaroussky, referring to this repertoire of pieces from classicism to the 20th century.
Jaroussky’s mother remembers that when he was little he sang with a head voice, different from the chest voice of a tenor or a baritone, higher pitched, with a different color, which allows a man to reach notes and sonorities of mezzo-soprano, contralto or soprano. usually reserved for women. Something like a falsetto, but with a technique that requires years of training.
His prodigious and admired voice has been repeatedly recognized at the French Victoires de la Musique awards (“Revelation Lyric Artist” in 2004, “Lyric Artist of the Year” in 2007 and, in 2010, “CD of the Year 2009) and has also received numerous German Echo Klassik awards in 2005, 2008, 2011-2012 and 2015.
His technique allows him to move, deeply exploring the baroque repertoire, from the refinement of the Italian Seicento (Monteverdi, Sances or Rossi) to the dazzling brilliance of the arias of Händel or Vivaldi, a whole intimate world, sometimes whispered, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes painful, but always full of emotion and spirituality.
When he began to sing, he fell in love with the ‘castrati’, the castrated baroque singers whose voice, impossible to reconstruct today, is linked to that of the countertenors, capable of singing the same repertoire without any physical mutilation involved. “It’s a passionate relationship, of love and hate,” replies the French. And it is that for years the public has come to listen to the countertenors like someone who was attending a prodigy of nature, a formidable nightingale. “I don’t think there’s anything feminine about the countertenor’s voice, but I do think it’s a masculine voice that shows a different sensitivity,” says the countertenor, who affirms that there is “something political in addressing what is thought to be a man can’t do. There is a fight against stereotypes.”
Jaroussky has found the perfect partner to reach the heart of the public: guitarist Thibaut García, a young Franco-Spanish musician who has won numerous international competitions. In 2017 he was named BBC New Generation Artist, and two years later, ‘Instrumental Revelation’ at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. He is invited by the main guitar festivals in the world and by many orchestras.
Tickets are available on the Canary Islands Music Festival website (www.icdcultural.org/fimc) and on the usual sales platforms of the Tenerife Auditorium and the Pérez Galdós Theatre.
