b'Program Notescontinuedbittersweet mood in this brief, gentle work through prismatic changes from minor to major and shifting tonal centers. After a brief introduction in D minor, the tentatively searching melody begins in the violins over a sustained, soft, chord progression, with each chord change brought into relief by punctuations in the harp. The second section of the piece, in F major, has a more impassioned and hopeful quality, though this soon melts back into the return of the first theme. The chordal accompaniment now takes on a shimmering quality through the use of the fluttering tremolo effect, and the melody, played in unison by the cellos and violins, has the dark richness of the alto voice. An abridged version of the F major section brings the piece to its peaceful conclusion. Sospiri is dedicated to Elgars close friend William Henry Billy Reed, who was the concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra. Reed had assisted Elgar in revising the solo part of his violin concerto a few years earlier, and he is best known today as the author of the biography Elgar as I Knew Him.Instrumentationstrings and harpDuration5Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky(1840-1893)Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48Composed 1880Tchaikovsky drew inspiration for his Serenade for Strings in C Major from the example of his musical idol, Mozart. This four-movement piece has the general outline of a symphony, but the title Serenade creates the expectation of a lighter character and a less rigorous formal structure. Many composers of the mid-to-late 19th-century embraced the form of the serenade, as it allowed them to write large orchestral works while avoiding the lofty expectations created by Beethovens symphonic achievements. In addition to Brahms two Serenades written in 1858 and 1859, Dvok published a Serenade for Strings in 1877, and composers including Hugo Wolf, Ethel Smythe, and Edward Elgar also wrote in the genre. In 1880, Tchaikovsky was enjoying newfound freedom, having left both his teaching princetonsymphony.org/ 13'