Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Serenade No 1 in D major, Op 11 (original version reconstructed by Jorge Rotter) (1857/8)
Serenade No 2 in A major, Op 16 (1859 rev. 1860 and 1875)
Linos Ensemble
rec. 2020, Sendesaal des Saarländischen Rundfunks, Saarbrücken
CAPRICCIO C5447 [75]
Brahms’s two orchestral serenades are among his earliest orchestral works, They seem to have dropped out of the ordinary concert repertoire, if they were ever in it, but they are delightful works, well worth getting to know. Instrumental serenades, as shown in numerous examples by Mozart, were lighter in style than symphonies and often in a large number of movements. They were often written for performance in the open air to accompany festivities. Brahms’s two serenades, though clearly concert works, hark back to this tradition. They are both quite long and in an idiom which is reminiscent of Haydn and early Beethoven, with comparatively few anticipations of the later Brahms. Their tone is cheerful and they are full of good tunes.
Despite their neglect in concerts, they are fairly frequently recorded. Several of those conductors who have recorded the symphonies have also included the serenades; I have heard versions from Kertesz, Haitink and Chailly and there are several others. However, this recording is rather different. Brahms originally wrote the first serenade as a nonet for strings and wind and indeed performed it in this form. However, he changed his mind and rescored it for full orchestra, i.e. including trumpets and drums. He destroyed the nonet version but here it has been reconstructed by Jorge Rotter. Of course we cannot know
how close Rotter’s version is to the lost original, so it is not quite right to claim, as the booklet does on its cover, that this is the original version. But, as with the rather similar case of the Piano Quintet Op 34, which was originally written as a string quintet, this speculative recontruction is worth hearing.
This nonet version of the first serenade is scored for flute, two clarinets, horn, bassoon and solo strings. Following it with the score of the standard version, I immediately noted the absence of the oboe, whose lines are here transferred to the flute. However, this worked well. The musical substance is the same and nothing significant has had to be omitted because of the reduced forces. In this form it comes over as a large scale chamber work rather than as an aspiring symphony, as the full orchestra version can sound, and I enjoyed this as an alternative.
This version of the second serenade is more straightforward. This was scored for a small orchestra, i.e. with a full woodwind section and horns, but without trumpets or drums and also without violins. There was a precedent for omitting violins, in the short opera Uthal by Méhul, but I do not know whether Brahms knew this. The Linos play the score as written but with only one desk each of the strings. This puts the emphasis on the winds, who indeed have nearly all the material, with the strings mostly providing accompaniments. In the finale Brahms adds a piccolo and its joyous squeals make for a very cheerful ending. Again this is a beautiful work.
The recording is good and the booklet helpful. These Linos versions are an attractive alternative to the usual scoring.
Stephen Barber
Previous review: Ralph Moore
Published: November 22, 2022
