Sérénade Lyrique

• Elgar composed this work for small orchestra in 1899. It premiered at St. James’ Hall, London in 1900.¹
• Elgar was creating many small-orchestra arrangements of his works at this time because there was a demand for such pieces. The Sérénade lyrique was one of the few works Elgar wrote intended for small orchestra from the outset.²
• Regarding the demand for small-orchestra music in turn-of-the-century England: here’s what Percy Grainger once to Frederick Delius about it:

“Around 1910 he complained to me that his orchestral works were neglected in England. I wrote him saying that England was studded with fine amateur orchestras … ‘Write some short pieces for small orchestra,’ I urged, ‘and English orchestras will devour them.’”

Percy Grainger³

1. Diana McVeagh, “Elgar, Sir Edward,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 18, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000008709.
2. “Elgar – His Music: Other Music for Small Orchestra,” Elgar Society, accessed September 24, 2019, http://www.elgar.org/3smalls.htm.
3. Martin Lee-Browne and Paul Guinery, Delius and His Music (Woodbrigde, England: Boydell Press, 2014), 312.