Robert Kahn (1865-1951) was born in Mannheim of a well-to-do banking family. He began his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. There, he got to know and became friends with Joseph Joachim, who was the director. It was through both Joachim and his own family that he had a chance to get to know Brahms, who was so impressed with Kahn that he offered to give him composition lessons. However, Kahn was too overawed to accept. Nevertheless, Brahms did help Kahn informally, and while Kahn's work does, to some extent, show the influence of Brahms and later Max Reger, he is an eclectic and independent composer whose music has its own originality. After finishing his studies in Berlin, Kahn, on Brahms' suggestion, went to Munich to study with Joseph Rheinberger. After completing his own studies, he worked for a while as a freelance composer before obtaining a position at the Hochschule in Berlin, where he eventually became a professor of piano and composition. Over the years, his style evolved and showed considerable modernity, although it always remained tonal.
The Serenade for Strings was composed in 1933 when Kahn was 68 years old and arguably at the height of his compositional powers. It is a superb work, qualifying for the sobriquet of masterpiece. Unfortunately, it was never published during his lifetime. A copy of the manuscript, along with several other works, can be found in the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. We obtained a copy of the manuscript score and had parts made by senior editors Garik Hayrapetyan and Raymond Silvertrust. It is in three movements. The opening movement, Allegretto grazioso e moderato, begins with a wayward melody sung by the violin over a pizzicato accompaniment. A second, more traditional episode follows. Slowly, the tempo picks up and becomes rather dramatic. The themes are cleverly interwoven. The second movement, Vivace, is nervous and frenetic, a tonal picture of modern times in a metropolis. The finale, though one movement, has several substantial sections and is as long as the first two movements put together. It begins with a rather leisurely Allegretto con grazia with a genial melody played over a soft pizzicato accompaniment. After it slowly winds down, a powerful, thrusting Allegro energico
We are pleased to present this first-rate work, which we highly recommend for concert performance. It is a work well within the abilities of experienced and competent amateur players.
