Any doubts about the hushed intimacy and understatement of Stacey Kent’s voice not being suited to an orchestral setting are immediately dispelled within the opening bars of I Know I Dream. Accompanied by an orchestra of 50-plus musicians, the album’s timbral richness, perfectly balanced songlist, exceptional arrangements and unerring emotional power combine to produce what could be considered Kent’s most complete, most memorable statement to date. And what better way to start than with ‘Double Rainbow’ and ‘Photograph’, a brace of songs from one of the greatest of all bossa nova albums, the iconic 1974 recording Elis & Tom featuring vocalist Elis Regina and pianist, singer, songwriter and arranger Antônio Carlos Jobim. The music flows effortlessly, with Kent and her musicians relaxing into the luxuriant charts. Other highlights include the early Serge Gainsbourg song ‘Les Amours Perdues’, the oft-recorded Léo Ferré song ‘Avec Le Temps’, plus two songs from Kent’s 2013 album The Changing Lights (on which she similarly sings in English, Portuguese and French), the exquisite collaboration between Jim Tomlinson and the Portuguese poet António Ladeira, ‘Mais Uma Vez’, and the Kazuo Ishiguro/ Tomlinson title-track, both of which sound even more affecting in their new orchestral garb. Penned by Edu Lobo and Torquato Neto, with lyrics by Lani Hall, in terms of sheer beauty of sound, the album reaches its high-water mark with a molto adagio reading of ‘To SayGoodbye’.