Bryn Terfel: The Verbier Recital

Bryn Terfel’s 2011 recital with pianist Llyr Williams marks Verbier Festival Gold’s highly anticipated third release. The charismatic bass-baritone stages a performance that perfectly matches the delicacy and depth of this brilliant, poetry-inspired programme, which pairs Schubert’s magnificent Liebesbotschaft (‘Message of Love’) and Litanei with Schumann’s Liederkreis, a pinnacle of Romantic composition. The Schubert song was based on a poem by Ludwig Rellstab and excerpted from the posthumously published Schwanengesang, the composer’s collection of fourteen Lieder. Himself a writer and music critic, the literary-minded Schumann, in turn, drew inspiration from the poetry of Joseph von Eichendorff. The release is rounded out with Ibert’s ‘Chansons de Don Quichotte’, Roger Quilter’s ‘3 Shakespeare Songs’, and concludes with a handful of charming encores.