'The music proceeds strongly and regularly towards the point when the guitar begins to play Dowland's 'Come, heavy sleep, then the listener realises that Britten has not merely been inventing glamorous or piquant sounds for Mr Bream to realise. The Nocturnal is a lucid reative analysis of Downland's song, it holds the attention at many levels, and strikes deeper than at any one of them.' The Times, 13 June 1964