FOR the Rodewald Concerts Society to book a high-flyer of the calibre of Bryn Terfel was a considerable coup.

But here was a singer and accompanist who simply had the audience in the palms of their hands. They chose a superb programme, balancing the unfamiliar with sing-along favourites – something Terfel encouraged the audience to do in the Celtic folk-song settings with which he ended his performance.

  The most interesting selection came in the first half: settings of John Masefield from the pens of John Ireland, Peter Warlock, the rarely heard Frederick Keel and Roger Quilter, an almost forgotten English voice fast becoming fashionable again.

  But it was that powerful yet gentle Terfel voice which made these interpretations so special. His diction is impeccable and it’s possible to hear every word. And, in the warm acoustic of the Philharmonic, every nuance was almost amplified as he caressed the words of Masefield, one of the most evocative of English poets of the 20th century.

  From the familiar Ireland Sea Fever, through Warlock’s Captain Stratton’s Fancy to Quilter’s Now sleeps the crimson petal, to the charmingly wistful Three Salt- Water Ballads of Keel, Terfel kept up the pace in a performance which never lacked charismatic charm.

  And, having seen him frequently – though from afar – on the operatic stage, it was good to see his facial gestures close to: always apt and ever amusing.