The Serenade for String Orchestra in E minor, Op. 20, is an early piece in three short movements, by Edward Elgar. It was written in March 1892 as a present to his wife, Alice on the occasion of their third wedding anniversary that year and first performed privately in that year; its public premiere was in 1896. It became one of Elgar's most popular compositions, and has been recorded many times.

Background and first performances In 1892, Elgar had yet to achieve the public recognition that came to him by the end of the decade. His compositions did not earn him enough to support his wife and daughter; he earned most of his living conducting local musical ensembles and teaching in his native Worcestershire, while continuing to compose.

The Serenade for Strings may be a revised version of an earlier set of Three Sketches for Strings, performed in May 1888 at a concert of the Worcestershire Musical Union. The sketches had the individual titles "Spring Song" (Allegro), "Elegy" (Adagio) and Finale (Presto); the manuscript of the Three Sketches does not survive, and their connection with the Serenade is conjectural. The Serenade was the first of Elgar's compositions with which he professed himself happy. He wrote to a friend about the three movements, "I like 'em (the first thing I ever did)".Moore, p. 124 The critic Ernest Newman wrote in a 1906 study of Elgar that the Serenade and the concert overture Froissart (1890) were the only two works of importance among the composer's output before the mid 1890s: "the rest are experiments in various smaller forms – songs, pieces for piano and violin, part songs, slight pieces for small orchestra, &c".Newman, pp. 1–2

The work was first given in a private performance in 1892 by the Worcester Ladies' Orchestral Class, with the composer conducting. His first attempt to interest a publisher in the piece was rebuffed on the grounds that though it was "very good", "this class of music is practically unsaleable",Moore, p. 160 but he found a publisher in 1893.Moore, p. 170 The Serenade received its first public performance in Antwerp, Belgium on 21 July 1896,McVeagh, Diana. "Elgar, Sir Edward"', Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 22 August 2021 but was not given publicly in Britain until 1899. Two movements were played at a concert in the Grand Pump Room at Bath in January of that year;"The Pump Room Concerts", Bath Chronicle, 19 January 1899, p. 2 the complete work was played at a concert in York on 5 April 1899, conducted by Thomas Tertius Noble;"York Symphony Orchestra", Yorkshire Gazette, 8 April 1899, p. 6; and "York Symphony Orchestra", Yorkshire Herald, 8 April 1899, p. 13 and the composer conducted it at an all-Elgar concert in the seaside resort New Brighton on 16 July 1899."Notes on Music", The Liverpool Mercury, 1 April 1899, p. 7 The work is dedicated to the organ builder and amateur musician Edward W. Whinfield, who had encouraged the composer in his early years.Kennedy, p. 341; and Moore, p. 89

Music

The work typically plays for between 12 and 13 minutes in performance. There are three movements:

I. Allegro piacevole The metronome mark is ♩. = 96. The gently rocking metre of the first movement, the direction "piacevole" (pleasantly/agreeably) and avoidance of harmonic tension suggest a cradle song, according to the analyst Daniel Grimley, and an aubade according to Elgar's biographer Michael Kennedy.Grimley, p. 121Kennedy, Michael (1973). Notes to EMI LP ASD 2906 The movement opens with a figure in the violas that recurs throughout:

The main theme is heard from the third bar:

The middle section is an arching melody, moving briefly into the minor, before the coda presents a new theme derived from the opening subject, which itself returns to bring the movement to a quiet conclusion.

II. Larghetto The second movement, marked ♪ = 80, is in time. After a brief introduction the main theme is what Newman describes as "a long and flexible melody sung by the first violins … one of the finest and most sustained that ever came from Elgar's pen":Newman, p. 9

The introductory theme returns at the end of the movement as a peroration.

III. Allegretto The finale begins in time, ♩. = 92, changing to when Elgar reintroduces the main theme of the first movement to bring the work to a conclusion.

Recordings The Serenade has become one of Elgar’s most popular works, particularly with amateur groups, youth ensembles, and chamber orchestras,Grimley, p. 120 and is among the most recorded of his compositions. OrchestraConductorYear London Philharmonic Sir Edward Elgar 1933 New Symphony Orchestra of London Anthony Collins 1952 Concert Hall Symphony Orchestra Walter Goehr 1952 Royal Philharmonic Sir Thomas Beecham 1955 London Symphony Lawrance Collingwood 1955 Royal Philharmonic George Weldon 1963 Sinfonia of London Sir John Barbirolli 1963 Philharmonia Sir Malcolm Sargent 1966 London Philharmonic Sir Adrian Boult 1968 Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields Neville Marriner 1968 Bournemouth Symphony Norman Del Mar 1968 English Chamber Daniel Barenboim 1975 Royal Philharmonic Ainslee Cox 1975 Orchestra of St John's Smith Square John Lubbock 1975 Scottish Baroque Ensemble Leonard Friedman 1980 Melbourne Symphony Leonard Dommett 1982 London Philharmonic Vernon Handley 1983 City of London Sinfonia Richard Hickox 1984 Bournemouth Sinfonietta George Hurst 1985 I Musici – 1986 Orpheus – 1986 London Philharmonic Richard Armstrong 1986 English Chamber Yehudi Menuhin 1986 New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony Kenneth Klein 1987 Royal Philharmonic Andrew Litton 1988 London Chamber Christopher Warren-Green 1989 Capella Istropolitana Adrian Leaper 1989 London Philharmonic Leonard Slatkin 1989 Baltimore Symphony David Zinman 1989 Royal Philharmonic Sir Charles Groves 1990 BBC Symphony Andrew Davis 1991 Australian Chamber Orchestra Richard Tognetti 1992 Royal Philharmonic Barry Wordsworth 1993 Philharmonia Giuseppe Sinopoli 1994 Budapest Strings Karoly Botvay 1994 English String Orchestra William Boughton 1995 London Festival Orchestra Ross Pople 1997 English Chamber Paul Goodwin 2001 Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart Sir Roger Norrington 2001 Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra Conrad van Alphen 2003 Philharmonia Sir Andrew Davis 2007 Wales Camerata Owain Arwel Hughes 2007 Sydney Symphony Vladimir Ashkenazy 2009 Orchestra of The Swan David Curtis 2014 English Chamber Julian Lloyd Webber 2015 Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra Sakari Oramo 2016 BBC Symphony Edward Gardner 2018 Zürcher Kammerorchester Daniel Hope 2020 Anima Musicæ Chamber László Horváth 2021

See also Serenade for Strings (Dvořák) Serenade for Strings (Suk) Serenade for Strings (Tchaikovsky)

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

External links

Performance by A Far Cry from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in MP3 format Programme notes from BBC Radio 3