BSO Dreams & Romance

Schumann composed the Overture as a stand-alone work, later adding the Scherzo and Finale. He continued to revise them over the next twelve years. The Overture opens in dramatic fashion, the mood is dark and challenging until the lively major melody appears, lightening the mood. The Scherzo and Finale are, by turns, majestic, imitative and vivacious.

The Romance is one of the loveliest short works ever written and has become a popular concert piece. It is a highly characteristic work of Dvorák, combining his deep understanding of Classical form and Romantic harmony with beautiful flowing Slavonic melody.

Composed in 1841, Rêverie is the only piece of music written by Berlioz in a concertante style. He frequently used it on his concert tours abroad: it was played by several of the leading violinists of the age, among them Ferdinand David, Lipinski, Joachim and Wieniawski.

Brahms wrote this almost ”symphony” serenade under the spell of Mozart’s serenades and divertimentos and the septets and octets of Beethoven, Hummel, Schubert and Spohr. It is buoyantly fresh, inventive, spirited, and touching, and possesses a hearty rusticity and country-dance bumptiousness.