It is 14 years since Bryn Terfel won the Lieder prize at the Singer of the World competition in St David's Hall, yet, incredibly, this was his first recital here since then. It was also the first time anyone had dared lower the platform several feet, permitting greater intimacy between audience and soloist, and it takes a man of Terfel's physical and vocal stature to be certain of commanding the territory.
Terfel is a born communicator, every syllable so crystal clear that, even when he turned his back to sing to those in the choir seats above the back of the stage, not a consonant was missing. Surtitles? Dim diolch. In this programme, he mixed German lieder with English art and folk songs, as well as the Welsh songs that are in his blood. Schumann's Die Beiden Grenadiere immediately found him firing the cannons with relish and, similarly, Mein Wagen Rollet Langsam brought out the storyteller.
Terfel's dynamic range is legendary, and he can, at will, unleash a vast, luxuriant sound or control an infinitesimal whisper. The fact that he sometimes indulges these extremes, exaggerating natural contours, can detract a little from the stylistic unity of a song but, in Gerald Finzi's Op 18 cycle, Let Us Garlands Bring, the word-painting, the deliciously even tone and fine gradation of volume showed just what a master Terfel is.
Shakespeare settings were a particular feature of this recital, with Terfel and his pianist Malcolm Martineau tellingly offering Roger Quilter's versions of the same verses, bringing a lyrical sweep to the phrasing.
It is his comic gift that sets Terfel apart, and he and Martineau made the last lap an irrepressible double act. But it was in the final encore, where Terfel, on bended knee, serenaded a lady in the front row with Mozart's Deh Vieni alla Finestra, as suave and shameless as Don Giovanni himself, that some of the most beautiful colours emerged. He gently tossed her his bouquet and shook her husband's hand.
· Bryn Terfel is at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (0161-907 9000), tomorrow, then tours.
