[1] The album was compiled from digital recordings of a recital programme performed on 5 and 8 April 1981 at the Alice Tully Hall, New York City.

[1] The LP and cassette versions of the album share the same cover art, designed by Peter A. Alfieri, featuring a photograph of von Stade taken by Valerie Clement.

It was a climactic end to the first half of the record in that it showed off Frederica von Stade's virtuoso technique, but, although not a shallow composition, it was not the substantial kind of piece that a recitalist should programme before her interval.

[2] The B side of the disc began with Maurice Ravel's Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, "the nearest we come to the provision of a major work".

Alessandro Scarlatti's "Se tu della mia morte" had an "indrawn sadness", and in Hundley's "Come ready and see me", "she has a song that might have been written for her, so well does it suit her voice and art.

Frederica von Stade's rendition of Rossini's "Tanti affetti in tal momento", he wrote, was somewhat put in the shade by the "unforgettable bravura" of the version of the aria recorded by Marilyn Horne.

[4] As usual, Martin Katz was an excellent partner at the piano, and the audio quality of CBS's digital recording was exceptionally good.

[4] David Shengold wrote about the album in Opera News in 2016, reviewing a box set of von Stade CDs in which it was included.

[1] He praised her performance of Alessandro Scarlatti's "Se tu della mia morte" as "particularly exquisite" and her version of Ravel's Cinq mélodies populaires grecques as "affectingly done".

[5] The album was also reviewed in The complete Penguin stereo record and cassette guide, which described it as "taken from a live recital with von Stade vivacious and characterful in generally lightweight repertory".

[7] Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Cantata, RV 672 Francesco Durante (1684-1755), arranged by Martin Katz Solfèges d'Italie Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) La caduta de' Decemviri [fr] ("The fall of the decemvirs", Naples, 1697, R345.33) Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739), arranged by Martin Katz Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) La donna del lago ("The lady of the lake", Naples, 1819, with a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola (?-1831) after The Lady of the Lake (1810) by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)) Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Cinq mélodies populaires grecques (1904-1906, from traditional texts, translated by Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi (1877-1944)) Joseph Canteloube (1879-1957), collector and arranger Chants d'Auvergne (1923-1930) Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (1950) Richard Hundley (1931-2018) Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) Mostly About Love: Four Songs for Alice Estey (1959, texts by Kenneth Koch (1925-2002)) Richard Hundley Traditional, arranged by Herbert Hughes (1882-1937) On 4 February 1982, CBS Masterworks released the album on LP (catalogue numbers M-37231 in Britain, IM-37231 in the US), with sleeve notes by Peter G. Davis and an insert with texts and translations.