Lili Boulanger wrote the Nocturne aged eighteen, in 1911, originally scored for violin and piano. It shows, in its clean lines, lightish texture and the almost ironically sudden dismissal of its pseudo-romantic climax, a move back in tone towards the music of earlier French composers, while the little quotation at the end from Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune surely looks forward to a future in which Wagner would no longer hold the reins of power. (Roger Nichols)