Hyperion Records

Britten’s commitment to the piano lies essentially in his song-cycles. The official list for solo piano is slender indeed, but since the composer’s death in 1976 the archives have been mined to bring to light a number of early, forgotten pieces. There had been a precedent for this during the composer’s own lifetime. In 1970, at the age of fifty-seven, Britten himself was persuaded to publish Five Waltztes (Waltzes) culled from the enormous number of short piano pieces he had written between 1923 and 1925. As Britten wrote in his Preface to the 1970 Edition:

In 1925 came 10 Waltzes, including a Petite Valse—it seems sad that my French spelling was better than my English. Several of them were written before that, and since the composer was a very ordinary little boy, they are all pretty juvenile (here was no Mozart, I fear). But perhaps they may be useful for the young or inexperienced to practice …

from notes by Eric Roseberry © 1995