Georges Bizet was not eminent as a piano composer, for the number of his piano works is small and not very substantial in terms of form, content and character. Yet there is an exception: the “Jeux d’enfants” for piano four hands from 1871. In this loosely-connected series of twelve short and very terse genre pieces Bizet crafted a charming masterwork.

With an unpretentious simplicity that is full of French ‘esprit’, he creates a unique and distinctive mood in each of the miniatures and the te...