Johannes Brahms once wrote to his aunt, “I am in love with music, I love music, I think of nothing but music and of other things only when they make music more beautiful for me. You just watch: I’m going to write love songs again . . . to music itself.”

Richard Wagner wrote “Siegfried’s Idyll” as a birthday gift for his wife Cosima, and as a celebration of their lives together. It also refers to the birth of their son, Siegfried.

Wagner played the music for Cosima to awaken her from her afternoon nap, causing her to write, “As I awoke, my ear caught a sound, which swelled fuller and fuller; no longer could I imagine myself to be dreaming: music was sounding, and such music! When it died away, Richard came into my room with the children and offered me the score of the symphonic birthday poem. I was in tears . . .”

Chocolate and flowers pale in comparison to these declarations of love, but music lovers can treat their loved ones to a concert of romantic works, courtesy of the Bainbridge Orchestra.

The Bainbridge Performing Arts-sponsored community orchestra stages two concerts of “An Evening of Romance,” or rather, an evening and an afternoon of romance, 7:30 p.m. April 15 and 4 p.m. April 16, at The Playhouse.

The concerts will be led by guest conductor David Upham, who also conducted the final concert of last season.

Upham has planned a program centered on the theme of “Romanticism,” with music spanning from the 18th century works of Mozart to 20th century Strauss.

On the program are “Overture to ‘The Magic Flute,’” by Mozart; “Siegfried Idyll,” by Wagner; “Serenade in E-flat major for Winds, Op. 7,” by Strauss; “Serenade No. 1 in D major, Op. 11,” by Brahms; and “Slavonic Dances, Op. 46,” by Dvorak.

In the program notes Upham explains that “The Magic Flute” was the last music Mozart wrote for the stage, and it incorporates the ethical values and symbols of the secretive Freemason society, of which Mozart was a member.

Listeners, thankfully, don’t have to understand the mysteries of the Masons to appreciate the beautiful music.

While Mozart is technically before the Romantic period, Upham said Mozart had begun exploring the new musical ideas that would take root and blossom into Romanticism.

The Germanic Richard Wagner will forever be associated with the ponderous operatic masterpiece, “Der Ring Des Nibelungen,” but “Siegried Idyll” was inspired by domestic bliss, not Teutonic angst.

“We may never know the full extent of the private allusions in the themes of ‘Siegfried Idyll,’ but as in the case of Mozart’s overture, such knowledge is not required to appreciate this musical celebration of a peaceful and loving home,” Upham writes.

The composer Antonin Dvorak found inspiration for “Slavonic Dances” in the traditional dances of his Czech culture. Although he had already composed a slew of quartets, symphonies and serenades, it was the “Slavonic Dances” which catapulted him to prominence on the international stage, and secured his spot in the classical music canon.

The Bainbridge Orchestra is completing the season without a permanent conductor, after the departure of Sandi Schwarz last spring. Guest conductors this season have been Upham, Alan Futterman and Bremerton Symphony Conductor Elizabeth Stoyanovich.

Upham has a degree in music with an emphasis in education from Luther College in Iowa and a master’s in conducting from the University of Northern Colorado.

He is currently working on a doctorate of music arts at the University of Washington, as well as teaching and conducting three orchestras at Newport High School in Bellevue and the Classical Orchestra of the Seattle Youth Symphony.

The Bainbridge Orchestra presents “An Evening of Romance” in two performances, 7:30 p.m. April 15 and 4 p.m. April 16 at The Playhouse, 200 Madison Ave. N, Bainbridge Island.

Tickets are $15 adults, $9 seniors and students, available at the box office, by phone at (206) 842-8569 or online at www.theplayhouse.org.