This first recital by a handsome young artist reclaimed from rock‘n’roll by crusading voice teachers will already be a hit in his native Norway. Internationally, of course, the competition is deafening. The ‘Remembering Jussi’ tag might prove a double-edged sword but Tødenes is not trying to rival Björling and the idea does provide for a wider selection of repertoire (and languages) than the standard production-line tenor ‘hits’ disc.

We should say straightaway – and resisting any ‘odorous’ comparison – that this is a voice at the beginning of its serious life, as witnessed by recent awards from Norwegian National Opera and the Salzburg Festival. Tødenes handles the four Puccini stormers rather well – the final sustained note apart, his ‘Nessun dorma’ is more faithful to the composer’s original intentions than the Three Tenors approach – and has plenty of juice for Giordano, Bizet and ‘Arriverderci Roma’ (which benefits from being taken absolutely straight).

The songs are more a matter of work in progress, work made harder doubtless by their being recorded alongside so much red-blooded verismo. The Sibelius items suffer in both text and intention by being pushed too hard – a couple of A/B checks remind one how the Björling discs convince through apparent effortlessness (aka years of having taken them on the road). The same could be said for Adam’s ‘O holy night’, in theory a perfect closer, and Lensky’s aria, at the moment better served by Björling’s frozen golden tones than Tødenes’s student Russian and simplicity. Good sound and song accompaniments from Gimse but orchestra and conductor are only at their most convincing in the
best-known numbers.