This 1987 best-of compiles the work from A&M efforts that marked a stylistic change from her Vanguard years, yet a pretty consistent level of success. Relying on the work of other artists seemed to be more hit and miss during the A&M era. In Baez's interpretations of songs like Bob Dylan's "Simple Twist of Fate" and "Forever Young" and John Lennon's "Imagine," her pitch-perfect tone might strike some as unemotional, but her singing is engrossing nonetheless. Not surprisingly, Baez sounds the best here with the tracks that deviate from weighty issues. "Gracias a la Vida" (sung in Spanish) and the haunting "Di Da" (with Joni Mitchell) have her giving off more charm and emotion than usual. "Children and All That Jazz," from her best-selling 1975 album Diamonds & Rust, has a gorgeous, heavily produced '70s L.A. pop/rock style that suited her voice. Unlike many greatest-hit sets, Classics, Vol. 8 also offers strong live performances, including "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and the CD closing "Amazing Grace." Classics, Vol. 8 has the strength of a regular release effort and more than captures the time frame and the artist it's spotlighting.

Astrud Gilberto has never been properly anthologized by Verve Records; although they've released a number of compilations over the years, none of them have been definitive, and most of them have been rather skimpy. 1987's The Silver Collection, originally released only in Europe but later imported to North America, is an idiosyncratic selection. It omits "The Girl From Ipanema," her biggest hit, includes all 11 tracks from her 1965 release The Astrud Gilberto Album, and adds on a selection of singles and album tracks recorded from 1965 to 1970 with no particular logic. All that said, however, it's still one of the best compilations available of this idiosyncratic but brilliant singer's '60s material. Jazz purists turn up their noses at Gilberto, correctly pointing out her near total lack of technical ability. However, the Brazilian songbird's appealingly plain voice, with its deliberately wobbly pitch (the "desafinado" style celebrated in Antonio Carlos Jobim's song of that title), total lack of vibrato, and deadpan phrasing, is a delight for those attuned to its charms.

Most notable is a Liebestod of superbly controlled intensity. In the Narrative and Curse the exultant, passionate power of Varnay's singing exposes one hint of mannerism—a tendency to press too hard on certain syllables, and to seem, in consequence, an Isolde more unyielding than volatile. The difficulty a great Wagnerian can have in scaling her voice down is most noticeable in the first of the Wesendonk Lieder: Varnay is best in the rapt, inner intensity of No. 3, "Im Treibhaus". Such inner intensity is also abundant in the long extract from Act 2 of Tristan.

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin is as well-loved by the public as he is appreciated by his peers, who awarded him the Canada Council for the Arts Virginia Parker Prize in September 2000. At the helm of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal since March 2000, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has worked tirelessly to broaden the scope of the orchestra’s involvement in a variety of venues, while always maintaining his own rigorous standards and keeping in close touch with the music-loving public.

This live recording brings a new and fresh light on Rossini's most famous works after Il Barbiere di Siviglia. The concert took place in Paris - Basilique de Saint-Denis, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the work, first performed in March 1864, in Paris. The amazing quality of the solo voices (Julia Lezhneva, Delphine Galou, Michael Spyres, Alexander Vinogradov) meets the dynamic and delicate direction of Ottavio Dantone and is supported by the unique atmosphere of accentus chamber choir.

Vivaldi is best known as a composer of instrumental music, but the man has also written a lot of secular vocal music, from large-scale operas to the more intimate cantatas. "La Senna festeggiante" is not a real opera, but a 'serenata', a word derived from the Italian 'sereno' (clear). The genre was so named because the spectacles in question were performed outdoors on clear, warm summer nights. Serenatas were usually written by order of a nobleman or high clergyman, as part of large celebrations to mark a special event such as a birthday, the birth of an heir, a marriage, the arrival of an important person, and so on. They were usually performed in the principal's palace garden.