Les Roses du Bengale

These six lyrical waltzes are part of a whole series of dances for piano from the quill of the young Offenbach. It is quite likely that their creation was occasioned by various events before they were joined together into a collection for publication. Each piece is dedicated to a particular individual (or "rose") from amongst the Parisian nobility: A pretty bouquet to which the only twenty-year-old composer was certainly not indifferent. For him, it was surely also a means of attaining a special place in the fashionable salons.