ALONGSIDE the BBC Singer of the world prize runs the song prize. Heats had been performed at the more  intimate Dora Stoutzker Hall – an ideal venue. Now the five finalists moved to the much larger St. David’s Hall for what proved to be an enthralling final.

The only baritone to be heard in finals week ( and one of the favourites for the main prize ) was the extraordinary Amartuvshin Enkhbat. Though his impressive bass-like timbre filled the hall  his performance was too one-dimensional and  lacked engagement with the text.

Canadian soprano Aviva Fortunata followed and certainly exhibited the art of the lieder singer to a far greater degree with every word beutifully characterised in her highly accomplished programme.

The singer who may have suffered a little from the requirements of the large hall was  Turkish tenor Ilker Arcayurek. Here was a truly beautiful voice that captured the heart of many in the audience - one could have listened to it all night.  

However it was the Belorrusian soprano Nadine Koutcher,  with here easy musicianship, effortlessly lustrous tone and huge expressive range, who  took the competition to a new level. Her ‘Pierrot’ (Debussy) and  Rachmaninov’s wordless ‘Vocalise’  left one breathless. Surely the winner?
Cue the ultimate winner - South Korean bass Jongmin Park.

Only the most impassioned and expressive of performances could follow Miss Koutcher. He duly obliged with magnificently dramatic Schubert and Schumann. The audience was split. The prize almost seemed irrelevant. The winner was music.