Serenade

Painter Carl Spitzweg’s »Spanish Serenade« portrays a small group of musicians who have come together in the lamplight under a balcony. Up there, on the balcony entwined in ivy, is a young lady. Engrossed, she listens at twilight to the gentle sounds. Countless composers of the 19th century, including the Dane Emil Hartmann and the Czech Antonín Dvořák, loved the free suite form of the serenade: delicate, soft and dreamy, like the mood on a Spring evening, scattered here and there with the reverberant sound of laughter.