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Britten's Nocturne for tenor and small orchestra was written during August and September 1958 and was first performed at the Leeds Festival on October 16th, with Peter Pears singing the solo and Rudolph Schwarz conducting. The first London performance, conducted by the composer, was given on January 30th, 1959, at Friends' House, Euston Road, as a tribute to the memory of the late Erwin Stein.

When my father died in 1934 I inherited what was in his music cupboard. There were several manuscript scores of published works, and I was able to give The Planets to the Bodleian Library and the Choral Symphony to the Royal College of Music. The remaining manuscripts were of his unpublished works, and I have given most of them to the British Library, where they can be studied by readers but not reproduced for publication or performance. During his life my father gave away some of his manuscripts to his friends. I have not been able to trace them all, but his two chief amanuenses, Vally Lasker and Nora Day, have presented theirs to the Parry Room Library, Royal College of Music, and those he gave to his friend Edwin Evans are now in the Westminster Central Library.

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