In July 1955, aged 19, Luciano Pavarotti journeyed to Wales, joining his father in a choir from Modena, the Societá Chorale G. Rossini, to compete in the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. They won the male voice competition by a distance. Later in life he would attribute this as a pivotal moment, one that would inspire him to consider the possibility of becoming a professional singer – it was ultimately an experience that would shape his destiny. Forty years later, in 1995, fulfilling a promise made to himself and many others throughout an extraordinary career, he returned to give a special concert in the Pavilion during Eisteddfod week. This is the recording of that previously unreleased historic concert.

His return to the small town in North Wales, at the peak of his fame, took place five years after the phenomenon of The Three Tenors concert in Rome (1990), four years after the televised concert, attended by 150,000 in London’s Hyde Park (1991), and two years after he took to the stage in Central Park, New York (1993) performing for a crowd estimated at 500,000, and again for millions on television. Addressing a packed Pavilion crowd, Pavarotti said: “Forty years ago, my God – it seems to be just yesterday for me. I have done so many things. I always say that to the journalists when they ask me, what is a day more memorable in my life, and I always say that it is when I won this competition, because it was with all my friends.”