Conductor - Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985) / Philadelphia Orchestra
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Serenade for Strings (Tchaikovsky)
Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48, premiered in 1880. It remains one of the late Romantic era's most definitive compositions.
Tchaikovsky intended the first movement to be an imitation of Mozart's style, and it was based on the form of the classical sonatina, with a slow introduction. The stirring 36-bar Andante introduction is marked "sempre marcatissimo" and littered with double-stopping in the violins and violas, forming towering chordal structures. This introduction is restated at the end of the movement, and then reappears, transformed, in the coda of the fourth movement, tying the entire work together.
On the second page of the score, Tchaikovsky wrote, "The larger the string orchestra, the better will the composer's desires be fulfilled."
The second movement, Valse, has become a popular piece in its own right.
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