Alongside Felix Mendelssohn's two mature piano concertos (Opp. 25 and 40) are a handful of smaller works for piano and orchestra, one of which is an item from 1838 called Serenade and Allegro giocoso (or giojoso) for piano and orchestra in B minor, Op. 43. The piece is in two parts, as its title indicates; and were they not connected at the hip, as it were, one might imagine that the two parts were composed entirely apart from one another, so different are they in character and, yes, quality. The Serenade and Allegro giocoso, Op. 48, was published in Beethoven's hometown of Bonn in 1839.

The serenade, which should probably be reckoned the more appealing of the two halves, begins with a long, charmingly faux-salon-esque tune for piano solo. Even after the orchestra enters the piece might almost be the better for their absence—the solo piano provides the other instruments little room to take part in the thematic activity. There is a great deal of key-tinkling on the part of the Serenade's solo pianist, most of it quiet, but some of it occasionally a little more forceful; all of it difficult, but none of it at all flamboyant in a Lisztian sense. Midway through, the flutes and clarinets borrow the melody for a few bars, only to have it politely but firmly taken from them by some show-stealing arpeggios from the soloist.

The allegro giocoso is full of offbeats at the beginning—both orchestra and soloist are purposefully made to sound a little off-balance, so that when the music does eventually find its rhythmic groove, we get a real sense of satisfaction; we can all just relax, sit back, and enjoy the perhaps too polite scurrying of the soloist's hands and feet. Things speed up to Animato during the second half, leading up to a buzzing, but not especially rousing, finish.

© Blair Johnston, All Music Guide