Its text is drawn from letters between English composer Benjamin Britten and his first romantic interest, Wulff Scherchen.
[2] Both ArtsHub and The AU Review included the song cycle in their Top Ten shows at the 2016 Brisbane Festival.
The world premiere was performed by tenor Andrew Goodwin, saxophonist Michael Duke, and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under conductor Paul Kildea, the Britten biographer.
Chan met Scherchen after learning that he was alive at the age of 95 and living in northern New South Wales with his wife of over seventy years, under the name John Woolford, which he had assumed after his release from internment in 1941.
Chan theorized that Britten's own works contain a coded symbol of Scherchen, the saxophone, and so this instrument was given a solo role.