Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

In 1988 Bryn Terfel represented Wales in the Singer Of The World competition in Cardiff and launched his career by winning the lieder prize. Here we have another of his varied recitals that I have classified as "classical" mainly because of his remarkable voice. Whatever he sings he always sounds like an opera singer. Not that he is trying to "cross over" or "dumb down". Like many Welshmen, Bryn knows good songs and loves to sing them. So we start with Bizet's "Toreador Song" from 'Carmen' and finish with Hoagy Carmichael's "Lazy Bones". There are enough spiritual songs to justify bringing this to your attention. We have Howard Goodall's arrangement of "The Lord Is My Shepherd", the spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", Schubert's "Ave Maria" with guest soprano Sissel, Copland's arrangement of Lowry's "At The River" and a glorious "Abide With Me" featuring The London Voices. As the man himself says, "We have music theatre, we have opera, we have hymns, we have folk songs. This disc encompasses all of that."

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