The word “serenade” brings to mind rustic settings and love songs. However, as early as the late 18th century, the term had expanded to include instrumental music. These were short pieces intended for social entertainment and performed by small ensembles, in most cases by a single family of instruments, whether wind or string. Over time, the genre took on greater artistic ambition. This is the case with the serenades featured in this program, composed by two musicians who knew each other well. Dvořák’s Op. 44 emerged in the late 1870s, without a flute but with three horns. It combines echoes of Mozart’s style with the unmistakable sound of traditional Bohemian folk music. Brahms’s Op. 16 was composed two decades earlier. It consists of five short pieces in which one can already glimpse the grandeur of the four symphonies he would later compose.

Serenatas
Orquestra Académica Metropolitana

A. Dvořák Serenade for Winds
J. Brahms Serenade No. 2

Jean-Marc Burfin and/or Orchestral Conducting Students – ANSO musical direction