Serenade No. 1 in D Major Op.11

This serenade was written by Johannes Brahms in Detmold, Germany, in 1857, and was publicated in Leipzig in 1860. At the beginning, it was composed for a small ensemble of nine instruments. Johannes Brahms himself directed the first execution in Hamburg in 1859. The serenade is divided in six movements, and takes about 40 minutes. This reduction for 10 instruments is based on the partiture for orchestra, and is composed of a string quintet and a wind quintet. The orchestration and the use of the wind instruments with the two clarinets respect the first version for nine instruments, a quintet without the Oboe. My intention was to create a right balance between strings and wind instruments. All dynamics, articulations, the breaths and the ligatures were taken from the original manuscript and not from any other music editions.