Once more Thomas Quasthoff puts us in his debt with a recital wholly out of the ordinary, executed – with Thielemann’s eager cooperation – confidently in singing of such strength and beauty as to almost silence criticism. Surveying German Romantic opera from the now-neglected Lortzing to Richard Strauss, he ranges easily through roles usually assigned to either a specifically baritone or bass voice.

In the lengthy extracts from Zar und Zimmermann he portrays both the pompous, amusingly portrayed mayor Van Bett and the upright figure of the Tsar, whose Act 3 aria he sings with refined tone and elegiac feeling having by then portrayed Van Bett’s preening in a voice perhaps not quite ‘fat’ enough for the ridiculous fellow. In Der Wildschütz he is funny as the schoolmaster Baculus, a buffo bass figure whose ‘Fünftausend Taler’ used to be a staple of a German bass’s repertory; then he sings Graf Eberbach’s lovely solo in a mellow baritone. It’s good to be reminded in such a positive way of Lortzing’s merits.

In a complete change of mood he then projects all the malevolent ardour of Lysiart’s highly original aria from Euryanthe, a work just revived this summer at Glyndebourne. This is a reading that recalls the style, in compact tone and verbal acuity, of the late, great Hermann Uhde. In the Tannhäuser pieces he projects the address of the benevolent Landgrave with complete authority and then sings Wolfram’s Evening Star aria, from which the CD takes its title, with perfection of tone and line. Finally he catches finely old Morosus’s restored peace after all the disturbing events of Die schweigsame Frau have finally come to an end. Once again, like his bass-baritone predecessor Hans Hotter, he easily encompasses the low range of this solo.

Thielemann, and his Berlin orchestra and chorus, are at one with their soloist throughout, and the recording catches everything in a clear, warm perspective.