Sea songs

"It's been a few years since Sir Bryn visited a recording studio and here he lets his hair down in a programme of sea songs, shanties and maritime folk songs ... His journey takes him much further than the shores of Wales ... as a North Wales farmer's son, ... with songs originating from the Shetlands, New Zealand and the Bahamas. Along the way, Terfel is joined by friends and colleagues, Sir Simon Keenlyside, Sting, singer-songwriter Eve Goodman, the folk group Calan and the male vocal group Fisherman's Friends from Cornwall ... The whole disc has an atmosphere of companionship, as if a group of friends just got together to reminisce and make music ... The songs range from the rumbustious to the gently nostalgic and, whether singing in Welsh, Breton, Norn or English, Terfel's diction is so crisp you can all but taste the words. Terfel's bass-baritone may have acquired a slightly rougher edge when singing out full voice, but in the quiet songs, he can still spin out a gently caressing legato line of great beauty ... I was very pleasantly surprised and I enjoyed it immensely".

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"Terfel sings with such powerful clarity of enunciation you feel you could take dictation, even if your grasp of the language in question (Welsh, Breton, Norn) may be sketchy ... Best of all is The Unst Boat Song, from Shetland, a mariners' prayer for safe passage. Terfel sings it with all the beauty, and the gift of storytelling we know from his years singing Wagner's grief-laden sailor in The Flying Dutchman".

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