Preface

The present version of Johannes Brahms’ Serenade Opus 11 is a reconstruction. It is known that Brahms originally scored this work for nonet and orchestrated it only later. However, although the nonet version was performed in 1859, neither the parts nor the score have survived.

When reading through the orchestral score, it is an almost automatic reaction to wonder whether the nonet version could be reconstructed. The deeper one penetrates into the orchestral version, the clearer it becomes, just how much Brahms preserved from the original nonet scoring.

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Of course, one should not expect a symphonic sound when playing or listening to the nonet. It is a substantial, significant chamber-music work whose sound quality corresponds more or less to that of Beethoven’s Septet or Schubert’s Octet. The more broadly spread-out orchestral sound is replaced here by a more subtie, intensive, and discreetly nuanced sound, which confers a transparent brightness to this work.

Jorge Rotter