Serenade, after Plato's "Symposium"

The five movements follow, loosely, five speakers at Plato's dinner party on the nature of love, though you don't need to know the philosophy to follow the music.

I. Phaedrus, Pausanias (Lento, Allegro): The violin opens alone with a long, searching line before the strings enter and the music picks up speed, moving from solemn to spirited.

II. Aristophanes (Allegretto): A short, playful movement, light on its feet, almost dance-like, offering a break from the seriousness of the first.

III. Eryximachus (Presto): A brief, fast-moving scherzo, tightly wound and over almost before it starts.

IV. Agathon (Adagio): The emotional center of the piece, a sustained, lyrical melody for the soloist that many listeners remember longest; it unfolds slowly over rich string harmonies.

V. Socrates, Alcibiades (Molto tenuto, Allegro molto vivace): Begins gravely, almost like a slow processional, then erupts into a fast, jazzy, syncopated finale full of rhythmic energy, ending the work with sudden brilliance.

Listen for the way the violin never really stops singing, even when the orchestra turns urgent or percussive, and for the sharp contrast between the hushed, searching outer movements and the bursts of dance rhythm in between.

Bernstein composed the Serenade in 1954 on a commission from the American violinist Isaac Stern and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's patron Isaac Stern. He completed it while also working on other projects that summer, drawing on Plato's Symposium, a dialogue in which guests at a banquet each give a speech in praise of love, as a loose framework rather than a strict program. Bernstein himself said the connection to Plato was not meant to be a literal narrative but a series of "reflections" on the ideas expressed by each speaker. The work received its premiere in Venice in 1954, with Isaac Stern as soloist. It has remained one of Bernstein's most performed concert works, valued by violinists for its combination of lyrical writing and rhythmic vitality.