Beethoven, Symphony No 6, "Pastoral"

 
Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies were premiered together on December 22, 1808, at the recently opened Theater an der Wien, in Vienna, the city occupied by Napoleonic troops, between pacts and ruptures, since 1805. The performance – only with works of his own and for his benefit – it had been organized by Beethoven himself in order to ensure a positive balance for that year. Shortly after his fortieth birthday and beset by the progressing deafness, Beethoven conducted all the works and also played the piano.

The program
The extremely long concert lasted just over four hours and began with the Sixth Symphony heard for the first time, followed by the aria, Ah, perfido. Then came the Gloria from the Mass in C major, closing this first part with Concerto No. 4 for piano and orchestra, with Beethoven at the piano. The second part opened with the premiere of the Fifth Symphony, then came the Sanctus and Benedictus from the aforementioned mass. Next, Ludwig performed an improvisation for solo piano and, finally, the Fantasia for piano, choir and orchestra was heard.

This monumental program, very poorly executed by an orchestra that had only one rehearsal, had to be listened to in an icy auditorium, which ended up annoying the audience.

A witness to the concert
Johann Friedrich Reichardt, also a composer, has left us his impressions of that evening, which he attended at the invitation of Prince von Lobkowitz, Beethoven's patron:

"There we sat, in the most bitter cold, from half-past six until half-past ten, and confirmed for ourselves the maxim that one may easily have too much of a good thing, still more of a powerful one. Neither I nor the good-natured prince... could leave the hall until the concert was over, although some of the really wretched performances pushed us to the edge of our patience. ...The singers and orchestra had been assembled almost at random, and some of the pieces (all bristling with difficulties) had not even had a rehearsal by that mob. ...First came a pastoral symphony, or reminiscence of country life.... Each movement was a long, perfectly constructed piece, full of vivid description and brilliant ideas; the only trouble is that this pastoral symphony was longer than the time we could afford for a full concert..... There followed an extended Italian Scena [the aria Ah, perfidious one] sung by Mademoiselle Killitzi, the lovely-voiced young Bohemian. With the terrible cold in the hall, one cannot blame this beautiful girl for the fact that on such an occasion her voice trembled more than she sang; we, in our box, were also shivering, sheathed in scarves and coats, prisoners of the unbearable cold... Next came a Gloria for soloists and choir, which was very badly sung, to our disgrace. Then a piano concerto, new and tremendously difficult [it had been privately premiered at Lobkowitz's house a year earlier], which Beethoven played impressively at great speed..."

Abstract from J.F. Reichardt. Personal Letters Written on a Trip to Vienna

Theater an der Wien, at early 19th century

Symphony No. 6, in F major, opus 68
The Sixth Symphony, called "Pastoral" by Beethoven himself, is one of his few "programmatic" or "descriptive" works, and is, historically speaking, halfway between Vivaldi's brilliant Four Seasons and the later symphonic poems of Liszt and, later, Richard Strauss. However, the composer pointed out that rather than describing naturalistic pictures or mere imitation of sounds of nature, with this work he intended nothing more than to evoke feelings: there is "more emotion than description" in it, he said, and it is perhaps for this reason that he subtitled the first movement as we point bellow.

The work, quite extensive, lasts approximately forty minutes. The rendition is by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, on the occasion of the complete cycle of Beethoven's Symphonies conducted by Daniel Barenboim during the summer of 2012 at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Movements

The symphony is in five movements, although from the third movement onwards they lead straight into the next. Along with the obligatory tempo indication, Beethoven added a "description" for each of them, which, however, he warned, should not be taken literally:

00       Allegro ma non troppo   "Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside".

10:53  Andante molto mosso  "Scene by the brook" (the only overtly descriptive moment in the work: at 21:27 the nightingale, cuckoo and quail sing, represented respectively by the flute, clarinet and oboe, as Beethoven noted in the same score).

22:43  Allegro "Merry gathering of country folk". At the end, after resuming the initial theme, after a "presto" passage, it comes the allegro, the storm, in:

28:33  Allegro "Thunder. Storm." Here, too, the finale links directly to the allegretto, at:

32:30  Allegretto "Shepherd's song. Cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm", The work ends when, after a suggestive passage that resembles a prayer, marked "pianissimo, sotto voce" (40:36) and after a few brief resplendent measures (41:01), it resolves with restrained verve into two chords in F major.