Serenade in A major, Op.16

brahms: serenade in A

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Serenade in A major, Op.16

Allegro moderato

Scherzo: vivace

Adagio non troppo

Quasi menuetto

Rondo: allegro

Although Brahms had serious inhibitions about approaching the symphony in the earlier part of his career, he was quite happy with the orchestral serenade. Far from being put off by Beethoven’s example in this case, he was attracted to the form by the Mozart and Haydn serenades and divertimenti which he got to know and love when he was working at the Court of Lippe-Detmold towards the end of the 1850s. The First Serenade in D major, Op.11, was written in 1858 (in its original nonet version) while he was still wrestling with the intractable material of the Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor. The second and more successful of the two serenades was completed in 1859 and first performed by the Hamburg Philharmonic, with the composer conducting, in the following year.

The obvious peculiarity of the scoring of the Serenade in A major is that, while it includes horns and standard woodwind in pairs, the violins are left out of the string section. The effect of this is not only to thrust the wind instruments into unusual prominence but also to influence the nature of the melodic material. The opening theme on clarinet and bassoons, for example, is a pure woodwind inspiration. It is true that the second subject, when it eventually emerges in double-dotted rhythm on clarinets in thirds, would sound equally well on violas or cellos. But it is the chorale-like disposition of the first subject which determines the character of the movement and which, with its associated theme in triplet rhythms, dominates the development section. Violas and cellos do in fact reintroduce the second subject in the recapitulation - which is their major structural responsibility in the Allegro moderato - and cellos and basses sustain it beneath woodwind allusions to the first subject throughout the lingering coda.

In the Scherzo, which (with its duple-time theme set in a triple-time context) is closely related to the Czech furiant, the melodic interest is restricted exclusively to the wind instruments. Although there is no reason why the strings shouldn’t have a more prominent place in the outer sections, the clarinets and bassoons in sixths allied with an eloquent horn counterpoint in the Trio section make another essentially wind sound.

Anticipations of later works in this unambitious but prophetic score are too numerous to identify. The Adagio non troppo , which foretells the story of Brahms’s creative life from the Haydn Variations to the First and even the Fourth Symphony, is particularly remarkable in this respect. It is remarkable too for the division of interest between strings and wind - the former being occupied largely by an ostinato bass while the latter pursue a melodic line so expressive that it leads before long to a passionate outburst not entirely dissimilar to a dramatic moment in the last movement of the First Symphony. In this context the major harmonies in the closing bar are surely more a matter of baroque precedent than a happy resolution of the emotional issues involved.

It was probably the predominance of wind colours that led Brahms to suggest that the oboe solo in the Quasi Menuetto might be transferred to a solo violin. Even so, as the plaintive middle section of a delightfully subtle approximation to the Viennese waltz, it is ideal oboe material. Wind instruments naturally carry the quick-march theme of the last movement and, though Brahms awards the other main theme of the Rondo to the oboe first of all, he does not long deny its natural affinity to the A-string of the cellos. By this time, however, the piccolo has established its toy-soldier presence and the cellos and violas are in no position to compete with it.

Gerald Larner ©2006