Lennox Berkeley first came to prominence with the premiere of his Serenade in 1940. He had studied in France with Nadia Boulanger and was a close friend of Benjamin Britten; the two composers even wrote a composition jointly. Commentators have found a rather French refinement and elegance in Berkeley's works, in addition to the bracing neo-Classicism of Stravinsky. Like Britten, Berkeley did not favor lush, plump orchestral sounds; so while this work's British origins are quickly apparent, the sound is still quite different from, for instance, that of Elgar's Serenade (1892).

The opening movement is bubbly and marked by a tendency to quickly shift between the major and minor modes. The second movement is a love song, the portion of the Serenade that perhaps bears the clearest impression of the work's title. The Scherzo is mercurial in temperament, sometimes gay and sometimes worried, and marked by busy ostinato patterns.

It is in the final movement that Berkeley departs from the prevailing mood. Traditionally, works titled "Serenade" are upbeat pieces with positive conclusions. Berkeley's is a sad and moving meditation that rises to a high point before subsiding. This unexpected aspect of the Serenade may well be related to the outbreak of World War II, which occured as Berkeley was in the midst of composing the work. At the end, the formerly high-spirited opening theme of the first movement comes back in a slow, sad statement.

© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide