John Mark Ainsley's cleverly constructed concert highlights the personal and musical connections of four of the 20th century's finest songwriters: Britten, Poulenc, Heggie and Berkeley.

The breadth of the repertoire shows Ainsley's range, his wide-ranging vocal color, his expressive voice and his extraordinary understanding of the text.

Ainsley is accompanied by Malcolm Martineau, to whom Heggie's Friendly Persuasions is dedicated. The American composer pays homage to Poulenc with four imaginative songs, each of which recreates in miniature a transformative friendship in Poulenc's life. in 2008, Ainsley and Martineau gave the world premiere of "Friendly Persuasions" at the Wigmore Hall in London.

The concert also includes three works by Poulenc: Fancy, Bleuet and Tel jour telle nuit, a beautifully conceived and designed cycle; it is considered Poulenc's greatest vocal work and is reminiscent of the great cycles of a century earlier such as Winterreise or Dichterliebe. Despite being of French descent and fluent in the language, Berkeley's friendship with Britten led him to set verses by the English poet W. H. Auden instead.

His five poems are among the best of their kind; Berkeley is a cohesive and satisfying collection that perfectly captures both the imaginative and reflective elements of Auden's poetry. Auden in turn reintroduced Britten to the works of John Donne, which Britten subsequently set to music in his Holy Sonnets; darkly moving and utterly challenging, they are among his finest works.