Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, “Pastoral”
Composed 1808; Duration: 42 minutes
First BPO Performance: April 1, 1947 (William Steinberg, conductor)
Last BPO Performance: April 8-9, 2017 (John Axelrod, conductor)
Beethoven’s fifth and sixth symphonies were composed concurrently and premiered on the same program in Vienna in December 1808. As such, it is worthwhile to consider their connection in understanding how such different works could be composed by the same troubled composer.
In his 1802 letter to his brothers (dubbed the “Heiligenstadt Testament”), Beethoven despairs over his increasing deafness and the potential fallout for his career and life. He rounds the corner with his innovative fifth symphony, in which he heroically confronts fate and emerges victorious. The sixth, on the other side of the same coin, is a wholesome celebration of nature. Here arises the Romantic notion of nature as being idyllic and serene, and best when unaffected by modernity. Beethoven’s contradictions confound: the misanthropic socialite; the lonely, deaf composer who embraces Enlightenment ideals of mankind; the modern, ambitious careerist who prefers nature.
The “Pastoral” symphony was ambitious for its length, with an added fifth movement (the last three are played without break), and the expanded orchestra (the addition of piccolo and trombones would have been innovative had they not also been included in the fifth symphony). Each movement includes a programmatic title poetically describing the scene at hand. There are obscure examples of such things prior, but his assembly of these elements, along with his fifth, sparked a new generation of musical thought.
With a simple melody, Beethoven captures that first feeling of being in nature. His fixation on tiny musical cells portrays the serenity of green, undulating hills. Unending repetitions are developed to joyous delight. Beethoven chooses a babbling brook as the setting for the gently swaying second movement. He seems lost in thought as birdsong marks the movement’s conclusion.
The third movement is a riotous country dance that zooms along in triple meter, contrasted by the bravado of the duple-meter trio. The form is peculiar in that the trio occurs twice, with an abbreviated, frenzied conclusion.
The fourth movement is a torrential storm, crafted with painstaking detail. Even as the tumult subsides, thunder can be heard in the distance as warm melodies seamlessly fold into the rondo finale with its opening “Shepherd’s Song.” The movement is Beethoven’s final essay giving thanks to his beloved countryside. Culminating in a rapturous buildup, the ecstatic climax is followed by a hymnlike, even prayerful, moment of reverence.