Serenade for Wind Instruments (Dvořák)

Serenade for wind instruments, cello and double bass in D minor (Czech: Serenáda pro dechové nástroje d moll), Op.

The work is dedicated to the music critic and composer Louis Ehlert who praised the Slavonic Dances highly in the German press.

It was created in 1878, shortly after the première of the opera The Cunning Peasant, one of fifteen compositions he submitted for the Austrian State Stipendium award.

The Serenade evokes the old-world atmosphere of musical performances at the castles of the Rococo period, where the worlds of the aristocracy and the common folk merged.

[2] The work consists of four movements: The Serenade is written for two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, three horns, cello and double bass.