"The Italian Songbook consists of two groups of songs. The first group, consisting of 22 songs, was set in 1890-1891 and the second group with 24 songs in 1896. Strictly speaking it isn't a cycle ... The two singers are well-matched ... The first thing I observed was the sensitive playing of Joseph Middleton, pliable and perceptive. Secondly I noted Carolyn Sampson's girlish tone in Auch kleine Dinge, and her soft and inward reading ... When Allan Clayton made his entrance, he at once convinced me: here he displayed his armoury of nuances that had enthralled me on the Liszt disc, his beautiful pianissimo ... Among more recent offerings, Sampson and Clayton are certainly among the top contenders".