Serenade for Strings in E

The wonderful String Serenade in E Major (1875) dates from Antonín Dvořák’s most productive and personally happy period. Financial security still eluded him, but he had recently taken a prestigious post as organist of St. Adalbert’s in Prague, which meant less time teaching and more time composing. Thus, newly married and welcoming his first child, Dvořák was in a “good place” as he quickly sketched the String Serenade in May, 1875. Fortune smiled on the Czech composer, it seems, and the entire vibrant score required only two weeks to complete.
Sheer joy and contentedness emanate from the Serenade, which helps explain its enduring popular appeal. Dvořák begins and, in cyclical fashion, ends with an expansive melody characterized by gentle imitation and soaring first violins. Apart from a more dance-like middle section, this theme dominates the movement. The gracious waltz, making subtle homage to Chopin (see his Waltz op. 64 no. 2), reminds us of the heights Dvořák attained in the contemporaneous Slavonic Dances. In the third-movement Scherzo he manages to fuse polyphony and sonata form with unrestrained folk energy and make it sound effortless, natural. The touching Larghetto finds Dvořák equally at ease, writing broad overlapping phrases that develop motives heard in earlier movements. The finale continues this trend of organic growth. Thus the last-minute appearance of the Serenade's opening theme will not come as a surprise. Its unhurried charm seemed unsuitable to cap the entire piece, so Dvořák added a presto coda to lift you from your seat.
The real surprise, I would argue, is that Dvořák could match this level of compositional exuberance at times when personal circumstances were far less joyous. For instance, he followed the Serenade with an immensely successful Stabat Mater (1877), which commemorated the deaths of his three children. Its performances garnered the attention and active support of Brahms, which led immediately to publication opportunities and commissions from abroad. His security was assured; from intense joy and pain he had forged a musical identity that subsequent generations would regard as a culture treasure, never to be lost.

(c) Jason Stell