For the first song, he selected the early L'Infinito (The Infinite, 1819), which begins "Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle" (It was always dear to me, this solitary hill,).

[2] The work was first performed on 11 July 1967 in Munich as part of the festival Allgemeines Deutsches Musikfest München 1967.

The soloist Barry McDaniel sang with the Münchner Philharmoniker, conducted by Reinhard Peters.

[2] A recording was chosen in 2006 to represent orchestral songs for the sound documentary Musik in Deutschland 1950–2000.

It was performed by Thomas Mohr and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Georg W. Schmöhe [de].