Serenade for String Orchestra, in E minor, Op. 20 was written in 1892 and first performed that year by Worcester’s Ladies’ Orchestral Class under the composer’s baton in a privately arranged concert, its public premiere being in 1896. Presumably Elgar used earlier sketches of an orchestral suite in it. The manuscript’s original arrangement of the Serenade for piano four hands contains a dedication to his wife Alice on the occasion of their third wedding anniversary in May 1892. There is no autograph of the extant manuscript score, so the one published in 1893 by the London publishers Breitkopf & Härtel is accepted as the original. The printed score, as well as the extant manuscripts, formed the basis of subsequent editions of the work.

During this period Elgar had not yet established himself as a composer, he makes a living by working with various ensembles, composing numerous works for them. Inspired perhaps by the earlier string serenades of Tchaikovsky and Dvořák, Elgar composed a work full of romantic pathos, which is still one of his most performed works, and is repertoire for professional and youth orchestras. It was one of his most significant opuses until the mid-1890s.

The Serenade for Strings is in three movements, with the short third movement thematically related to the first and a kind of recapitulation that gives cyclicality to the musical form. In the first movement, the tempo designation (Allegro piacevole – pleasant, cosy) brings the composer’s characteristic emotional restraint to the unfolding restless melody at the beginning, followed by the yearning-filled theme in a sense of quiet melancholy, flowing into a reminiscence of the beginning. The lyrical central second movement (Larghetto), like his later Enigma Variations, evokes an intense intimate dreamscape, at once tranquil and sensuous, with dynamic nuances from majestic crescendo to pianissimo. The short third movement (Allegretto) contains melancholic recollections of the preceding movements.