Bryn Terfel sings Schubert, Schumann, Quilter, and Boito – With Llŷr Williams

At the 2011 Verbier Festival, the bass-baritone Bryn Terfel accompanied by Llyr Williams at the piano performs a recital featuring a cycle of Schubert and Schumann Lieder, Roger Quilter’s Shakespeare Songs, and Arrigo Boito’s powerful Mefistofele.

After the success of his 2009 performance in Don Giovanni, the Verbier Festival welcomed the charismatic and generous Welsch singer Bryn Terfel for the second time. At his side, the pianist Llyr Williams accompanied Terfel’s sumptuous singing in a performance matching the delicacy and depth of this brilliant program.

The poetry-inspired program couples Schubert’s magnificent Liebesbotschaft (“Message of Love”) 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.

Photo: © Nicolas Brodard