Johannes Brahms ~ Serenades

Over the centuries, the serenade form, which had begun as a nocturnal song of courtship, evolved into a suite of dances and marches. Very often at princely courts or in well-to-do bourgeois homes, such divertimenti served as background music for weddings and other festivals. That these might be held outdoors accounts for the preponderance of woodwinds and horns. Long before Brahms took an interest in the form, Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven had written serenades for various instruments, as Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Stravinsky, and the young Richard Strauss were to do after­wards. But by Beethoven's and Schubert's day, given the revolutionary changes in society, such music had come to be designed for serious, attentive listening. Hence Brahms could freely compose Serenades that are notably gentle in manner, soft-spoken in quantity of sound, in mood idyllic and tender.

tracks

01. Serenade Nr.1 in D-Dur, Op.11 - I. Allegro molto (12:54)

02. Serenade Nr.1 in D-Dur, Op.11 - II. Allegro non troppo (7:57)

03. Serenade Nr.1 in D-Dur, Op.11 - III. Adagio non troppo (14:25)

04. Serenade Nr.1 in D-Dur, Op.11 - IV. Menuetto 1; Menuetto 2 (4:10)

05. Serenade Nr.1 in D-Dur, Op.11 - V. Scherzo: Allegro (2:44)

06. Serenade Nr.1 in D-Dur, Op.11 - VI. Rondo: Allegro (6:08)

07. Serenade Nr.2 in A-Dur, Op.16 - I. Allegro moderato (8:44)

08. Serenade Nr.2 in A-Dur, Op.16 - II. Scherzo: Vivace (2:37)

09. Serenade Nr.2 in A-Dur, Op.16 - III. Adagio non troppo (8:30)

10. Serenade Nr.2 in A-Dur, Op.16 - IV. Quasi menuetto (5:00)

11. Serenade Nr.2 in A-Dur, Op.16 - V. Rondo: Allegro (6:16)

Serenade Nr.2 in A-Dur, Op.16 - II. Scherzo: Vivace (2:37)