Tony Bennett: Forty Years — The Artistry of Tony Bennett (Columbia/legacy)

THERE'S NO ONE so cold as a cold Italian, the saying goes. And as this lovingly crafted, four-CD boxed set demonstrates, there's none so warm as a warm one. There is much to admire about Tony Bennett's way with a song — his relaxed rhythms, sensitivity to lyric nuance, taste in arrangers and accompanists, a vocal technique that can whisper ballads and climb crescendos with equal constancy, and, not least these days, stay in tune. These are the tools of a great singer. But what really makes us care about Tony Bennett is his radiance of spirit. He reminds us that music is, in the broadest sense, the language of love.