Known as the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 is the closest you will ever get to a musical walk in the country.
Read on to find out more about this ground-breaking work from one of the undisputed giants of classical music.
Featured in concert at Huddersfield Town Hall on Thursday 26 February conducted by Karel Deseure
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What’s the music like?
Andrew Mason who plays clarinet in the Orchestra of Opera North describes what to expect:
“I’m so looking forward to playing Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony in Huddersfield’s glorious town hall. Beethoven is often depicted as showing a stern stare underneath a furrowed brow – he looks so austere and unhappy. If there’s anything that people may know about him, it’s that he lost his hearing later in life and, as a result, much of the music can sound angry and intense; just think of those famous four notes at the start of the previous symphony, possibly the most famous four notes ever written (and if you think you don’t know them, trust me, you do!)
“What people sometimes don’t realise is that Beethoven also had a lighter side which is shown perfectly in this piece: the calm, peaceful, rural scenes it depicts are so different from the persona we might be familiar with. In choosing to write about scenes from nature, his music takes on a different dimension, where we can close our eyes and hear babbling brooks, birdsong, thunderstorms. We call this kind of writing ‘programmatic’, where it depicts scenes rather than being an abstract melody. I often think about it as film music, but where the film hasn’t yet been made.
“Full of lightness and joy, this symphony is the perfect piece for the final week of winter, as we’re about to welcome in the spring.”
Listen to the music
The composer Ludwig van Beethoven
Who was the composer?
Ludwig van Beethoven is one of those names that most people recognise even if they know very little about classical music. Not only that but his face, alongside Mozart’s (whose ‘Concerto for Flute and Harp’ is also being performed at this concert), is one of the most recognisable among all the major composers.
Born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany, Beethoven published his first compositions – a series of piano variations – at just 12 years old. After moving to Vienna in 1792, he studied composition with Haydn, while also rapidly gaining a reputation for his phenomenal piano playing and improvisation skills. One of the facts most associated with Beethoven is that he lost his hearing during his lifetime. We know that he was already suffering with tinnitus in 1796 when he was in his late ‘20s, and that he was completely deaf by 1816. Despite this – and his increasingly curmudgeonly reputation – he still managed to compose some of his greatest work in his later years. Inhabiting a critical moment between the Classical and Romantic periods in the 18th and 19th centuries, he changed the face of music composition in the West by capturing humanity’s struggles so vividly within his scores.
By the time of his death in Vienna in March 1827, Beethoven had composed an impressive body of work, including 16 string quartets, nine symphonies, three piano sonatas, one opera and a wealth of choral music. He remains one of the most performed composers today.
Beethoven's handwritten score of the 'Pastoral' Symphony © Beethoven-Haus Bonn
When was the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony written?
Six years in the making, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony was completed in 1808 and premiered at Theater an der Wien in Vienna, on 22 December that year, alongside his fierier, and better known, Fifth Symphony. It was an ambitious programme which was not entirely successful, requiring people to sit for several hours in an unheated concert hall! Despite the audience’s understandably mixed response, its musical merit was never in question, and it quickly became known as Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony for its evocation of various countryside scenes.
Beethoven gave each of the five movements a title, providing a guide to what they were intended to evoke, from a bucolic idyll to a sudden and tumultuous storm. A note was included in the programme saying the music was ‘more an expression of feeling than painting’ – something which is particularly apparent in the Shepherd’s Song as the symphony nears its joyful, life-enhancing finale.
The Orchestra of Opera North at Huddersfield Town Hall. Photography by Tom Arber
Did you know?
— Excerpts from the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony have been used in films and TV programmes as diverse as Disney’s Fantasia, The Simpsons and the detective series Columbo.
— We don’t know the exact date of Beethoven’s birth, only that he was baptised on 17 December 1770.
— Unlucky in love, Beethoven never married, despite declaring his passion for several (mostly aristocratic) ladies during his lifetime.
The Orchestra of Opera North perform Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony with Karel Desure conducting at Huddersfield Town Hall as part of the Kirklees Concert Season on Thursday 26 February. The programme also features Stravinsky and Mozart.
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