Symphony No. 6 in F Major ("Pastorale"), Op. 68
Premiere: Vienna, December 22, 1808
Piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, strings
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Allegro ma non troppo ("Happy feelings awakened upon arriving in the countryside")
Andante con moto ("Scene at the brook")
Allegro ("Merry gathering of country folk")
Allegro ("Thunderstorm")
Allegretto ("Shepherd's song: Grateful feelings and thanks to the divinity following the storm")
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
The musical sketches in Beethoven's notebooks show him working simultaneously on his fifth and sixth symphonies, two works that are worlds apart in spirit. He completed both masterpieces around the same time in 1808, and they were premiered together at the end of that year in a marathon concert, along with the Choral Fantasy, the Piano Concerto No. 4, several movements of his Mass in C, and his dramatic scene and aria, Ah! perfido. Not surprisingly given the overwhelming amount of music, one report tells us that the concert was not fully rehearsed!
In contrast to the tempestuous and triumphal character of the Fifth Symphony, the Sixth is a more leisurely, pastoral work with a literary program depicting scenes in nature, a program that we can clearly hear and that we can read in the titles of the movements. In one place, at the end of the second movement, the score even names the birds at the brook, as the flute, oboe and clarinet imitate the calls of the nightingale, quail and cuckoo. Nonetheless, Beethoven insisted that the music is meant not so much to actually "paint" scenes of nature as to show the feelings aroused in us by experiencing nature. As one might expect of a "Pastoral" Symphony, the work is more tranquil and serene than much of Beethoven's music. To that end, it uses simple folk-like themes with occasional hints of bagpipe drones to create a bucolic atmosphere. Only in the famous thunderstorm of the fourth movement, where Beethoven adds piccolo, trombones, trumpets and timpani, does the music become wilder. This is not human passion, though, but the fury of nature, which then subsides and returns us to the pastoral music of shepherds.
Boston Baroque Performances
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68
May 6 & 7, 2005
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor