The four-movement work written in 1880 and first performed in Moscow in 1882 is dedicated to Konstantin Albert, Tchaikovsky's fellow professor at the Conservatory of Moscow. By virtue of the varied nature and manifold elaboration of the music material as well as its numerous original solutions the Serenade for strings belongs to Tchaikovsky's most remarkable and - in spite of its title - profoundest compositions. The hidden relatedness of themes in the first and last movements, recoilings and me...