Serenade in E major, Op.22

Moderato

Tempo di valse

Scherzo: vivace

Larghetto

Finale: allegro vivace - moderato - presto

Along with Tchaikovsky’s rather more rhetorical Serenade for Strings in C – which was written five years later, in 1880 – Dvorák’s Serenade for Strings in E created a sound that was to inspire a whole repertoire of string-orchestra masterpieces. The opening of the work, its intimately confiding main theme introduced by second violins over a gently throbbing accompaniment on violas and echoed on the C string of the cellos, is an essentially string-orchestra conception. While never complex in counterpoint, the textures of the Moderato are always interesting and always carefully varied. The miniature fanfare material in the middle section modestly but effectively offsets the more sinuous line and seductive harmonies of the main theme.

Although, significantly, the potential of that theme does not seem to be exhausted by the end of the first movement, Dvorák now turns his attention to a nostalgic waltz with a trio section which not only introduces its own melodious material but also develops material from both sections. The Scherzo offers a similar contrast between its two main themes, with vigorous contrapuntal enterprise on the one hand and expressive melody on the other.

The most beautifully scored of the five movements must be the Larghetto. Attractively coloured though it is to begin with, it accumulates still more textural interest after the second entry of the main theme, on cellos with violins a bar behind, as violas and second violins add their modulating harmonies in a syncopated rhythmic accompaniment and the melodic line develops an ever more elaborate profile. The recall of the Larghetto theme in the middle of the Finale, where it appears quietly but expressively on the cellos, is one of the more pleasant surprises of the work. The recall of the opening Moderato material, just before a briefly brilliant Presto coda, is not so much a surprise as the fulfilment of the long-term structural expectations discreetly set up at the beginning of the work.

Moderato

Tempo di valse

Scherzo: vivace

Larghetto

Finale: allegro vivace - moderato - presto

Apart from Mendelssohn’s teenage String Symphonies, Dvorak’s Serenade in E major is the earliest work scored specifically for string orchestra by any major nineteenth-century composer. Together with Tchaikovsky’s rather more rhetorical Serenade in C major, which was written five years later in 1880, it created a sound that was to inspire a whole repertoire of masterpieces. Elgar’s Serenade in E minor, for example, one of the earliest works in a particularly distinguished British tradition, clearly owes much to the Serenade in E major - and not a little, incidentally, to the Holberg Suite.

The opening of the Dvorak Serenade, its intimately confiding main theme introduced by second violins over a gently throbbing accompaniment on violas and echoed on the C string of the cellos, is an essentially string-orchestra conception. While never complex in counterpoint, Dvorak’s textures here are always interesting, usually because of imitative activity in the inner parts, and always carefully varied. The miniature fanfare material of the middle section modestly but effectively offsets the more sinuous line and seductive harmonies of the main theme.

The Serenade in E major is also most subtly constructed. Although one does not necessarily expect a sonata-form first movement in a work presented as a serenade, the simple ternary form of the opening Moderato does not seem to exhaust the potential its main theme, in spite of the more voluptuous colouring applied to it on its reprise. For the moment, however, in the Dvorak turns his attention to a nostalgic waltz in C sharp minor with a Trio section which not only introduces its own theme in a melodious D flat major but also - spontaneously rather than conscientiously - develops material from both sections. The F major Scherzo offers a similar contrast between its two main themes, with vigorous contrapuntal enterprise on the one hand and expressive melody on the other, and introduces a tasteful hint of classical pastiche in the A major middle section.

The most beautifully scored of the five movements must be the A major Larghetto. Attractively coloured though it is to begin with, it accumulates still more textural interest after the second entry of the main theme, on cellos with violins a bar behind, as violas and second violins add their modulating harmonies in a syncopated rhythmic accompaniment and the melodic line develops an ever more elaborate profile.

The recall of the main theme of the Larghetto in the development section of the Finale, where it appears quietly but expressively on the A-string of the cellos, is one of the more pleasant surprises of the work. The recall of the opening Moderato material, just before a briefly brilliant Presto coda, is not so much a surprise as the fulfilment of long-term structural expectations so discreetly set up at the beginning of the work.