MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Schubert: An die Musik: Favourite Schubert Lieder (Songs)

"Terfel wholly overcomes the danger of choosing so many favourites, where we have in mind so many famous readings of the past, by the sheer spontaneity of his approach and his winning, youthful eagerness. Just occasionally that leads to unnecessary over-emphasis, as in an almost too nuanced ''Standchen'' and in too deliberate word-painting in the latter part of Der Wanderer. It is a fault very much on the right side, for here is a singer not afraid to employ rubato and vibrato to make his points and above all to take us right into his interpretations rather than leave us admiring them, as it were, from afar. Throughout, Martineau's at once vigorous and subtle playing is an apt support: his accompaniment in Erlkonig is arrestingly clear and precise...this one is pure pleasure"
(Gramophone)

Bryn Terfel's first Lieder disc for Deutsche Grammophon caused a sensation on its original release: his empathy with Schubert's style was complete. "In Erlkönig […] the four participants are superbly contrasted: I have seldom heard a more sinister-sounding Erl King, a more panicky child… this [CD] is pure pleasure." - Gramophone