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"Very few recital discs planned as tributes to artists of prior generations are as successful ... foremost among the many exemplary qualities of Heart’s Delight is the affinity of the singer for the music that he sings ... the listener is likely to find that the smile in Piotr Beczala’s voice is contagious." - Opera Today "Beczala brings strengths of his own to the late tenor's repertoire and shows confidence in it ... it's easy to be won over by Beczala's flexible legato, especially at softer volume in his attractive middle range and by a palpable sincerity with the words ... Lukasz Borowicz conducts with taste and plenty of rubato, leaving sentimentality to the voice and some of the busy, slick arrangements ..." - Opera News On Heart’s Delight, Polish tenor Piotr Beczala honours the late Austrian singer Richard Tauber, one of the most widely celebrated musical celebrities of his time. Beczala is fascinated by the fact that major operetta composers wrote for Tauber and he has chosen to record works closely associated with his legendary predecessor. Written with Tauber's voice in mind, these pieces were all hits at the time: audiences needed only to hear the first bar or so to know it was Tauber. He was idolized and became a part of popular culture whose songs were sung and whistled everywhere. Accompanying Beczala on this tribute is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, joined by special guest sopranos Anna Netrebko and Daniela Fally, mandolinist Avi Avital and the Berlin Comedian Harmonists. There's even a unique encounter between the two tenors from different centuries, when Beczala and Tauber's voices come together on Tauber's own song Du bist die Welt für mich. "There was no question I'd sing a duet with Tauber, but it was my own particular wish that it should be this song. It is a very special way of getting closer to Tauber, who was such a great musician. Tauber's 1934 recording provided the lead, the orchestra and I allowed ourselves to be guided by his tempo and by his ornaments. After all, he wrote it, so he was entitled to do with it whatever a singer can. It was a great experience to sing with Richard, who was always present in spirit at the sessions." - Piotr Beczala