One of the first recordings where Bryn Terfel participated was
Arnold Östman’s Don
Giovanni where he was a characterful Masetto. That
was in July 1989! Later he was promoted to both Leporello
and Don himself. He was a tremendous Figaro for Gardiner
and on his first opera recital with Levine and the Met
orchestra he also sang arias from several Mozart operas.
Clearly Mozart runs through his career. He is quoted as
saying in Nick Kimberley’s liner notes: “I sang Mozart
in most of my major debuts: at La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan
Opera in New York, at Covent Garden, and at both English
and Welsh National Opera. Mozart really wrote well for
the bass-baritone voice, which is purely my voice.”
Here now he is back with a full CD of arias, duets and
a trio, from his signature roles. Here we have a number
of “new” things,
some of them real rarities. There has always been a compelling
freshness about whatever Terfel has been singing. When he
now revisits some of these arias which he must have known
inside out for many years there is not a trace of routine.
Moreover the voice is just as effortlessly produced and flexible
as it was ten and more years ago.
Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
provide the best possible accompaniments, lively and expressive
and with
excellent solo contributions, most prominently from the woodwind.
Whether there is a thought behind the ordering of the numbers
I haven’t been able to figure out. It seems random but for
once I didn’t bother, since the playing and the singing was
of such high order as to silence any complaints. The concept
of a programme built around a great singer but with supporting
artists as well is better than the traditional “straight” solo
recital. Terfel is one of relatively few present-day artists
who is versatile and expressive enough to carry the whole
burden himself. The contrasting voices and duets mixed in
among the arias give the recital an even broader appeal.
Truth to tell, having finished my listening session I couldn’t
resist the temptation to play it all over again instead of
doing what I initially intended: taking out some of his earlier
versions for comparison. I felt I didn’t need to. Whatever
the differences they are not in the least quality-related …or
rather: Terfel has set his own quality criteria and these
new versions more than live up to them. There can be no better
recommendation!
Looking at the individual numbers one must again marvel at the freshness
and ease of the singing. Non più andrai sounds as
if he sang it for the first time, rejoicing in the opportunity
to mock poor Cherubin. When we come to track two it is quite
possible that it was the first time – a farewell sung with
great affection. Whether this is “real” Mozart is irrelevant – his
wife suggested, long after his death, that he supplied only
the string accompaniment while the vocal line was by his
friend Gottfried von Jacquin. So affecting is the aria, supposedly
from his last year, that Mozart would have been proud of
it. A little gem!
Soave sia il vento the trio from Così fan
tutte is a well-known highlight where Terfel
as Don Alfonso in the main provides a discreet bass line
behind the two ladies, who blend wonderfully.
The unfinished Männer suchen stets zu naschen is better-known
as the song Warnung, which I learnt ages ago through
a recording by Irmgard Seefried. I played it again and was
totally charmed by her lightness and word-pointing. Hearing
a bass-baritone in the same music, with orchestra as well,
is a quite different experience, but Terfel is also an excellent
word-pointer.
The dramatic insert aria Aspri rimorsi atroci, written for
Ludwig Fischer, the first Osmin, is a perfect vehicle for
our hero, revelling in opportunities to characterise and
show off some black low notes as well as his brilliant top.
Il core vi dono, including the preceding
recitative, shows him at his most honeyedly seductive while
Christine Rice is just as attractive a Dorabella. She was
a fine Annio on Mackerras’s recent La clemenza di Tito and
is even better here.
The arietta Un bacio di mano, inserted in Anfossi’s
opera Le
gelosie fortunate, has initially an accompaniment reminiscent
of the Papageno-Papagena duet.
The Don Giovanni-Zerlina duet again shows the seducer, irresistibly
caressing the phrases, and who can resist? Certainly not
Miah Persson, who responds in the same manner and since we
know the continuation of the story we can only be grateful
that Donna Elvira is soon to appear and save the innocent
peasant girl from the libertine. All through the recital
Miah Persson confirms the impression of her very successful
Mozart recital on BIS (see review)
which was a Recording of the Month.
Terfel’s Papageno, a role that he hasn’t done on stage, is momentarily
so sophisticated that one loses sight of the “Naturmensch”,
but the next moment he is just as “eyes-wide-open” naïve
as he should be. And of course, when he sings his second
aria Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen, Papageno has already
seen so much of the cruel world that his manners have become
a bit more “civilized” while Der Vogelfänger, which
is our first acquaintance with him is carefree, light and
open-airy. As the Count in Le nozze di Figaro he rages
with snarling venom – a tortured aristocrat not to be taken
lightly – actually a refined upper-class person who shows
his feeling in a primitive “Naturmensch” manner. His duet
with Susanna shows him more as the rutting but socially superior
squire while Miah Persson turns in another lovely and knowing
performance as Susanna; a complement to the aria on her own
recital.
A cute oddity is the duet by Benedikt Schack, orchestrated
by Mozart with Terfel depicting Lubano’s growing irritation with Lubana’s
miaowing. “The devil take your caterwauling”, he exclaims.
But Miah Persson persists in her “Miaow, miaow!” – an inspiration,
maybe, to Rossini and his Cat Duet – if he knew Mozart’s
opera.
Don Giovanni’s serenade can be sung in many different ways. Some singers
deliver a honeyed mezza-voce straight through; Terfel inflects
the text with some pointing of words, sometimes distorting
the line ever so slightly but giving more character to the
libertine. Colas’s little aria from Bastien und Bastienne with
its nonsense text explores his booming lower register while,
back to Die Zauberflöte and Papageno, the two duets
are as lovely as they could be in their respective ways,
bubbling with joy in the Papagena scene and full of emotion
in the Pamina duet. In between these he is an expressive
Leporello, now honeyed, now boisterous, in the Catalogue
aria. He rounds off the recital with a rendering of Figaro’s
fourth act aria full of character and gloriously sung.
With its mix of standard fare and rarities, all executed at the highest
possible level, this is as good a Mozart recital as any and
all lovers of singing should hasten to get it.
Göran Forsling
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Bryn
Terfel (bass-baritone) 
