After working twelve years as one of Hollywood's most respected composers, Korngold left his film career behind in. The Hollywood years represented good fortune for Korngold and his family, for it meant that they were safely out of Vienna when Austria fell to the Nazis, at whose hands the Jewish family certainly would have perished. Now, the war over and concert life in Europe resuming, Korngold thought to resume his concert career where it had left off. One of these new works was this symphonic serenade, scheduled by Wilhelm FurtwŠngler and the Vienna Philharmonic in 1950.

It calls for the utmost in virtuoso string playing. In mood it alternates between a dissonant, dark world and a soft, melodic mood. It opens with an exceptionally beautiful theme in the more positive mood, which is quickly contrasted with the darker material; the two ideas contend for the rest of the movement, and for many parts of the entire work.

The work did not go over well. FurtwŠngler was ill and Korngold had to conduct at last minute notice (and was none too healthy himself). He found that the orchestra had not been well prepared. In this age when Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg were being regarded as the heroes of Austrian music in the inter-War years, Korngold's music seemed then to be out of date.

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