The Berceuse exists in two very different versions: the 1854 piece is, for all its debt to Chopin’s model, also in D flat, with a constant D flat pedal-note, simpler than Chopin’s in conception, and largely free from florid decoration. The later version, whilst it preserves the harmonies of the original and the melodic fragments, applies an almost overwhelming amount of filigree ornament. Although this makes for rather a long work, it is also an impressively soothing one, and the studied absence of a continuous melodic line produces an ineluctable wistfulness.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1988