Opening simply with a solo voice, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Italian settings of eight poems by Renaissance artist Michelangelo for baritone and piano take both the performers and audience on a striking journey through Michelangelo’s tortured and knotty Tuscan poetry. The piano is introduced in the second of the eight settings punctuating the vocal part with a variety of different textures from bell-like figuration to turbulent virtuosity.

• To be performed continuously, without any break between songs. I Qui chiuso è'l sol
• II Mentre c'alla beltà
• III Come può esser
• IV La carne terra
• V Colui che'l tutto fe'
• VI Ben sarien dolce le preghiere mie
• VII Se'l duo fa pur
• VIII Caro m'e 'l sonno