Boosey & Hawkes published 45 of them, titled The Purcell Collection – Realizations by Benjamin Britten.
Britten began that year to arrange songs, duets and a trio by Purcell, writing out—or "realizing"—Purcell's figured bass as an accompaniment for piano, sometimes taking great liberty with the original composition.
[2] The Britten-Pears Foundation acquired a manuscript of one of the realizations in 2019, a version of The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation which Britten wrote for a concert at Wigmore Hall in 1945.
The "complete" set, 40 songs, was recorded in 1995, with nine singers, John Mark Ainsley, Ian Bostridge, James Bowman, Susan Gritton, Richard Jackson, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Simon Keenlyside, Felicity Lott and Sarah Walker, and pianist Graham Johnson.
[1] Another "complete set", called Purcell Songs Realised by Britten, was recorded in 2016 with singers Robin Blaze, Allan Clayton, Anna Grevelius, Ruby Hughes, Benedict Nelson and Matthew Rose, and pianist Joseph Middleton.