Weekly SpinOn:
A Summer Night’s Dream

“The moon methinks looks with a watery eye; / And when she weeps, weeps every little flower.”
— William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Night and dream are closely linked — especially on warm summer nights, when the light fades slowly and the world takes on a different tone. This playlist brings together music shaped by that atmosphere: works written for the evening or inspired by its quiet rhythm. Some were meant for social settings, others for performance, but all share a reflective and restrained character.

The selection includes Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings, a nocturne by Chopin in its orchestral ballet version from Les Sylphides, the Romance from Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, and Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte. Each recording was conducted by Herbert von Karajan, offering different views on night music across several decades of his career.

Track 1: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22, B. 52: I. Moderato – Antonín Dvořák

The first track in our playlist is fittingly a serenade for strings — a musical form originally intended for the evening. In the 18th century, serenades were written as light, multi-part pieces for social occasions, often performed outdoors or in informal settings. The music was relaxed in tone, written to accompany a mood rather than to tell a story. By the 19th century, composers like Dvořák began to explore the form. The serenade kept its light and gentle character, but it was often written for the concert hall rather than for social occasions. It became a way for composers to explore more personal ideas in a smaller musical form.

Dvořák composed his Serenade for Strings in 1875, at the age of 33. That same year, he received a grant of 400 gulden from the Austrian Ministry of Culture — a substantial amount that gave him space to work without financial pressure. The selection panel included Johannes Brahms, who had taken an early interest in Dvořák’s music. At the time, Dvořák was living in Prague, working as a church organist, and supporting a young family. The grant came at a turning point in his life, and the Serenade was one of the first works he completed during this more stable and focused period.

The first movement moves at a calm, steady pace. The melody unfolds in long, arching lines, with a shape and rhythm that reflect the influence of Czech folk music — not through direct quotation, but in the phrasing and natural flow. The harmony changes gradually, and the material is passed between sections with a sense of ease. There is no strong contrast or dramatic shift; instead, the movement develops patiently, focusing on continuity, balance, and tone. That restraint, and the quiet clarity of the writing, make it well suited to an evening setting.

Herbert von Karajan recorded the Serenade with the Berlin Philharmonic, using the original version for string orchestra. Some performances add winds or enlarge the ensemble, but Karajan keeps the scale as Dvořák intended.

Track 2: Les Sylphides (Orch. Douglas): II. Nocturne No. 10 in A-Flat Major, Op. 32 No. 2 – Frédéric Chopin

Les Sylphides is a short ballet created in the early 20th century by choreographer Michel Fokine. It was one of the first ballets to be built entirely around existing concert music — in this case, piano works by Frédéric Chopin. The title refers to sylphs, mythical air spirits from Romantic poetry and ballet, and the piece was described at the time as a “ballet blanc”: a plotless, dreamlike sequence of dances set in a moonlit forest. The score includes orchestrated versions of waltzes, mazurkas, and nocturnes, arranged for a small orchestra.

The second movement is based on Chopin’s Nocturne in A-flat major, Op. 32 No. 2, composed in the early 1830s. The word nocturne — meaning “night piece” — came into use in the 19th century to describe short works for piano with a lyrical and introspective mood. Chopin helped define the form and returned to it throughout his career.

Because Chopin composed almost exclusively for solo piano, his music rarely appeared in Herbert von Karajan’s repertoire. While Karajan did conduct two recordings of the Second Piano Concerto in 1980, this Nocturne — heard here in an orchestral version — remains his only recording of Chopin without a soloist.

The orchestration is by Roy Douglas, a British composer and arranger who prepared this version in the 1930s for conductor Thomas Beecham and the Royal Ballet. Douglas’s aim was to preserve the clarity of the original piano writing, avoiding the dense textures of earlier arrangements. Karajan recorded the Douglas version with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1961. It stands as a rare document of his engagement with Chopin — not through the piano, but through orchestral sound.

Track 3: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525: II. Romance. Andante – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Eine kleine Nachtmusik is one of Mozart’s most familiar works — but also one of his most mysterious. He entered it into his personal catalog on 10 August 1787, giving it the plain German title “Eine kleine Nacht-Musik” (A little night music). That title was likely just a note to himself — not meant as a poetic name, but simply a description of the type of piece he had written.

At the time, this kind of music was usually called a serenade, using the Italian term. Mozart himself used that word often — for example, in the Haffner Serenade and the Gran Partita. But in this case, he wrote in German. We don’t know why, but it may reflect a growing interest in establishing a German musical language, something he also pursued in his operas during the same period. In any case, the title stuck.

Mozart listed the piece as having five movements, but only four are known today. The second movement he described has been lost. We don’t know whether it was accidentally removed, lost in handling, or intentionally left out before publication — but it was clearly written and once part of the full work. The piece was only published in 1827, long after Mozart’s death, which may explain why no complete version survives.

The movement featured in this playlist is the second of the four remaining sections — a Romance marked Andante. Its placement in the piece reflects a typical structure from serenades of the period: a slower, lyrical movement between faster ones.

Karajan recorded Eine kleine Nachtmusik with the Berlin Philharmonic using Mozart’s original scoring for strings. The result is lean and clear, close to what Mozart would have expected. While it may seem like a light or decorative piece today, Eine kleine Nachtmusik shows how even a short instrumental work could reflect deeper shifts in musical culture — in language, structure, and purpose.

Track 4: Pavane pour une infante défunte, M. 19a – Maurice Ravel

Unlike the other works in this playlist, Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte doesn’t belong to a musical form written specifically for the evening. The serenade, the nocturne, and the divertimento were all genres with a clear connection to nighttime settings. The pavane, by contrast, was a slow dance from the Renaissance, often performed in the evening but not tied to a fixed musical function in Ravel’s time.

Still, the piece fits the playlist through its character. It is quiet, measured, and avoids strong contrasts — music that doesn’t follow a narrative but creates a mood. Ravel wrote it in 1899, while he was a student at the Paris Conservatoire. The title means “Pavane for a dead princess,” but Ravel later said he chose it simply because he liked how the words sounded in French.

The original version was for solo piano. In 1910, Ravel orchestrated the piece with light instrumentation and transparent textures. Although he later dismissed it as an early work, the Pavane became one of his most frequently performed compositions.

Herbert von Karajan recorded the Pavane only once in the studio, in 1985 with the Berlin Philharmonic. His interpretation is unusually slow, but the dance rhythm remains clearly shaped, especially at the beginning. From there, the piece develops gradually in tone and colour — a kind of sound painting that evokes an imagined landscape. Its soft orchestral glow seems to reflect the same world shown in this playlist’s cover image: a quiet park, a still pond, and a sky lit by moonlight.

—  Pia Bernauer (Karajan Institute)