Benjamin Britten’s post-war pre-eminence as an opera composer has tended somewhat to overshadow the considerable achievements of his earlier years. The three works included on this recording all date from the late 1930s at a time when Britten, then in his midtwenties, was fluently and prolifically writing works in every medium. Two lighter and still relatively littleknown orchestral works here frame the Violin Concerto, one of the most substantial and serious of the composer’s instrumental scores.

In April 1939, keen to distance himself from some personal issues at home and in any case happy to be leaving what he felt to be the uncongenial artistic climate in England, Britten, in the company of Peter Pears, set sail across the Atlantic in search of fresh opportunities in America. Before reaching their ultimate destination, the two men s