In 1892, Elgar had yet to achieve the public recognition that came to him by the end of the decade. His compositions did not earn him enough to support his wife and daughter; he earned most of his living conducting local musical ensembles and teaching in his native
Worcestershire, while continuing to compose. The critic
Ernest Newman wrote in a 1906 study of Elgar that the Serenade and the
concert overture Froissart (1890) were the only two works of importance among the composer's output before the mid 1890s: "the rest are experiments in various smaller forms – songs, pieces for piano and violin, part songs, slight pieces for small orchestra, &c". The work was first given in a private performance in 1892 by the Worcester Ladies' Orchestral Class, with the composer conducting. His first attempt to interest a publisher in the piece was rebuffed on the grounds that though it was "very good", "this class of music is practically unsaleable", but he found a publisher in 1893. The Serenade received its first public performance in
Antwerp, Belgium on 21 July 1896, but was not given publicly in Britain until 1899. Two movements were played at a concert in the
Grand Pump Room at
Bath in January of that year; the complete work was played at a concert in
York on 5 April 1899, conducted by
Thomas Tertius Noble; and the composer conducted it at an all-Elgar concert in the seaside resort
New Brighton on 16 July 1899. The work is dedicated to the organ builder and amateur musician Edward W. Whinfield, who had encouraged the composer in his early years. == Music ==