BEETHOVEN: Symphony No 6 in F Op 68, Pastoral

Beethoven walking in nature Photo: Public Domain

Beethoven lived in the noisy and polluted early industrial era. To escape the rabble, those with means would pay for a few quiet hours at a spa. Beethoven’s solution was to escape to the countryside around the city for long hikes.

“No one can love the country as much as I do,” he said, “for surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo which man desires to hear.”

Beethoven also enjoyed rustic music. Amateur bands playing Austrian folk dances brought him a lot of joy, even when their playing was a little ropey.

In his Pastoral Symphony, Beethoven wanted to do more than assemble a collection of natural sounds, he wanted to capture the way nature made him feel.

Part of Beethoven's manuscript for Pastoral Symphony Photo: Public Domain

Rather than race to a big finale, this music gently meanders and wanders. He sets a relaxed pace in the opening movement. The second movement features more musical painting with a babbling brook and bird calls – we’ll hear the nightingale represented by the flute, the quail is the oboe and the cuckoo by the clarinets.

The folk bands that Beethoven enjoyed so much make an appearance in the third movement. Beethoven was amused by the tendency of village musicians to fall asleep during their performances, wake with a start and get a few vigorous blows in before nodding off again. He includes this humorous scene after the horn calls, and the hijinks continue until the mood darkens and storm clouds gather.

The fourth, 'storm' movement starts with pizzicato droplets and builds to one of the most violent of all musical thunderstorms. Thundering timpani, string tremolos and strident dissonances and lightning strike from the piccolo. The tempest subsides and the final movement follows without a pause.

The finale – the Shepherd’s Hymn, returns us to the gentle, relaxed atmosphere of the first movement. And the symphony ends with a quintessential pastoral touch – horn yodelling accompanied by a wind drone.

Recorded 8 July 2020, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert

Producer: David McCaw

Engineer: Darryl Stack