Dmitri Hvorostovsky's recitals are usually deeply serious affairs, immaculately constructed around some of the most intense works in the Russian, French or German repertories. His concert with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, under its American conductor Constantine Orbelian was, however, wonderfully, unashamedly populist.

Well-known operatic arias formed the first half of his programme. After the interval came a series of numbers described as "Russian domestic romances" and a clutch of Neapolitan folk songs more usually associated with overweight tenors than with handsome baritones.

Throughout, the Hvorostovsky magic wove its familiar spell. He wooed, serenaded and seduced his audience with declarations of grand passion. He offered transposed versions of arias by Handel and Gluck, written for castrati and now usually sung by mezzos, delivering them with such beauty and sincerity that no one gave a stuff about baroque authenticity.

In chunks of Mozart's Don Giovanni, he was male sexuality incarnate. The Russian romances - slow, suggestive waltzes with throbbing balalaika accompaniment - revealed a rare knack of making the sentimental seem unforced and sincere, and Hvorostovsky played to the gallery with the Neapolitan songs, leaving the audience rightly screaming for more.

Orbelian is a sensitive conductor, and the MCO played with extravagant charm. When they were left to their own devices for a handful of numbers, however, there was a drop in voltage, with a less than inspired performance of the Don Giovanni overture and an overlong incursion into Schnittke's Suite in the Old Style, typically quirky, but no masterpiece.

Hvorostovsky, however, continues to astonish, and his voice remains one of the most gorgeous in the world. Some might have doubts about his programme in this instance - but he's such a fabulous singer, that all you can do when you hear him is sit back and surrender.