Dmitri Hvorostovsky - Passione di Napoli (2001)

The Philharmonia of Russia, under the baton of the US-born conductor Constantine Orbelian, give it their all. The brass swells, the strings shimmer and the percussion sparkles... Hvorostovsky himself is on top form, his miraculously burnished voice seamlessly modulated, his phrasing unselfconsciously expressive, shamelessly ardent and thrillingly dramatic... To paraphrase Mae West, sometimes too much of the good thing can be wonderful. -- BBC Music Magazine