As a genre in the broadest populist sense, the Italian canzone boasts a healthy tradition extending back at least two centuries. The selections on this release are all established favourites, survivors of bygone eras, having been variously recorded since the advent of the gramophone by famous singers, and more often than not, by tenors. They include Tosti’s Last Song, De Curtis’ Come back to Sorrento, the hauntingly beautiful Santa Lucia and ’O sole mio, perhaps the most enduring of all Italian popular songs. The performances are classics of the gramophone by some of the greatest tenor singers of the 20th century.