Antonín Dvořák - Serenade for strings in E major (1876)

Antonín Dvořák - Serenade for strings in E major (1876) - II. Tempo di valse The 1990 Philips recording of both Dvorak’s String and Wind Serenades is an elegant venture for Academy of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields under Neville Marriner. Music: While the whole serenade is a unified stream of the utmost gentility, I’ve ultimately decided to post solely the second movement - a particularly handsome waltz - which constitutes, for me, the height of Dvorak’s inspiration in the piece. The movement is remarkably simple in execution yet all the more striking in its freshness. From a dramatic point of view, it is a series of elegant dances, suggesting, in its juxtaposition of emotional unsteadiness and genuine ardor, a meeting between two lovers on the dance floor. The piece is built around the familiar ABA construct with a few surprising touches. The A section is divided into two contrasting segments. First, an elegant, vaguely agitated and even melancholic principal motive that