Johannes Brahms- Serenade No.1, 2 (Op. 11, 16)

 

 

 

Johannes Brahms

(7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer are such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

 

 

 

The two Serenades, Op. 11 and 16, represent early efforts by Johannes Brahms to write orchestral music. They both date from after the 1856 death of Robert Schumann when Brahms was residing in Detmold and had access to an orchestra.^[1]

Brahms had a goal of reaching Ludwig van Beethoven's level in writing symphonies, and worked long and hard on his first symphony, completing it only in 1876 when he was 43 years old. As preliminary steps in composing for orchestra, he chose early on to write some lighter orchestral pieces, these Serenades. The second was first sent to Clara Schumann, who was delighted by it. ^[2]

 

 

Serenade No 1, in D major, op. 11

 

 

 

1. Allegro molto
2. Scherzo. Allegro non troppo (D minor) — Trio. Poco più moto (12:56)
3. Adagio non troppo (21:08)
4. Menuetto I — Menuetto II (34:54)
5. Scherzo. Allegro — Trio (39:18)
6. Rondo. Allegro (42:09)

Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia conducted by Anshel Brusilow

Composed in 1857 as a nonet for wind and strings (version lost)
Revised in 1858 for chamber orchestra (version lost)
Revised in 1858 for full orchestra
Arranged for piano 4 hands by Brahms in 1859 or 1860

The final version of the work for orchestra premiered in Hannover, Germany, on March 3, 1860, and was published that same year, making it Brahms’s first orchestral work to appear in print.

Brahms’s serenade was sketched in Detmold, Germany, in 1857–58, when the composer was wintering there as a part-time music teacher in the court of Prince Paul Friedrich Emil Leopold. Then in his mid-20s, Brahms adopted a neoclassical style that was variously reminiscent of the earlier small-orchestra and ensemble works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and others, but he did not set aside his own Romantic sensibilities. The piece has six movements. The jubilant sonata-form first movement, with its distinctive drones, is followed by a rather sombre scherzo. Songlike flute melodies lend an idyllic quality to the third movement, “Adagio non troppo,” and a pair of straightforward, alternately wind- and string-dominated minuets form the third and fourth movements. The penultimate movement is a stately scherzo featuring particularly prominent horn parts, and the piece concludes with a galloping rondo played by the full orchestra.

Originally, the composition was modestly scored for nine wind and string players, but the composer’s friends—notably pianist Clara Schumann and violinist Joseph Joachim—encouraged him to rework the piece for a larger ensemble. Joachim conducted the premiere of the revised, final version, which included brass, timpani, and a larger contingent of woodwinds. Schumann, in turn, ensured the piece’s premiere in Vienna by making its presence on the program a condition of her own concert appearance with the Vienna Philharmonic.

 

The first serenade was completed in 1858. At that time, Brahms was also working on his Piano Concerto No. 1. Originally scored for wind and string octet and then expanded into a longer work for chamber nonet, the serenade was later adapted for orchestra;^[3][4] Brahms completed the final version for large orchestra in December 1859.^[5] In the orchestration of the Concerto Brahms had solicited and got a great deal of advice from his good friend Joseph Joachim. For this Serenade Joachim also gave advice, although to a lesser extent.^[6] The first performance of the Serenade, in Hanover on 3 March 1860, "did not go very well" in Brahms's opinion,^[7] but evidently the unusually large audience of 1,200 did not notice any mistake during the performance. At the end, applause "persisted until I came out and down in front." After every piece in the concert "the audience was shouting."^[7] This was a vastly better reception than the Piano Concerto had in either of its first two performances. But at its third performance, 24 March, also in Hamburg, it had been a success, perhaps not to the same degree as the Serenade.

The Serenade consists of six movements and lasts around 45 minutes.

1. Allegro molto (D major)
2. Scherzo. Allegro non troppo (D minor) — Trio. Poco più moto (B♭ major)
3. Adagio non troppo (B♭ major)
4. Menuetto I (G major) — Menuetto II (G minor)
5. Scherzo. Allegro (D major) — Trio
6. Rondo. Allegro (D major)

 

Serenade No. 2 in A, Op. 16

New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Arturo Toscanini, Conductor
New York, 31.III.1935

 

The second serenade was written in 1859 and dedicated to Clara Schumann.^[8] The first public performance was in Hamburg on 10 February 1860. It was revised in 1875.^[9] It is scored for a chamber orchestra, including double woodwinds but omitting violins, trumpets, trombones, and percussion.^[9][8] The five movements take approximately thirty minutes to perform.^[10]

1. Allegro moderato (A major)
2. Scherzo. Vivace (C major) — Trio (F major)
3. Adagio non troppo (A minor, ends in A major with a Picardy third)
4. Quasi menuetto (D major) — Trio (F♯ minor)
5. Rondo. Allegro (A major)