Ludwig van Beethoven was frequently in and out of love throughout his life, but never married or had children. These ardent infatuations would come on strong, then fade. But one love remained constantly with him from boyhood to his final days—his love of Nature with a capital “N.” He had a beautiful view of the Rhine from his childhood home in Bonn and lovingly recalled nature walks with his father. As an adult, Beethoven continued his country strolls, but these were excursions into the woods around Vienna; it was to Nature that he turned when his Muse would momentarily desert him or his personal life took a bad turn.
The sounds of Nature can be heard in many a Beethoven opus, but none so directly and overtly as in his immortal Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68—the Pastoral. It was completed in 1808 (the same year as his triumphant Fifth Symphony). In a letter to his publishers, Beethoven scribbled: “The title of the symphony is ‘Pastoral Symphony’ or ‘Recollection of Country Life,’ an expression of feeling rather than painting.” Though “painting”—i.e. descriptive—is also apt, for in this work you hear orchestral interpretations of feelings, yes, but also thunderstorms, dancing country folk and chirping birds. Many years later on one his nature walks with a friend, Beethoven paused, remarking: “Here I composed the ‘Scene by the Brook,’ and the yellowhammers up there—the quails, nightingales and cuckoos ‘round about—composed with me.” With so many of Beethoven’s works we can claim that, afterword, music could never be the same; the Pastoral is one such work.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Paul Thorgaard, conductor and music director of the Kettle Moraine Symphony (and from 1974 to 2006 director of orchestras at Wauwatosa East High School and Longfellow Middle School), is excited about the upcoming KMS performance of the Pastoral. “This is my first time conducting the Sixth. Everyone studies the Beethoven symphonic canon while in music school. I enjoyed a marvelous music education career of 32 years…and programmed the First and Second Symphonies several times along with the finale of the Fifth,” Thorgaard states. “I am now privileged to conduct an adult ensemble comprised of many former colleagues and professional musicians who can prepare major works in four or five rehearsals.” The Kettle Moraine Symphony was founded in 1968; it is a regional orchestra of approximately 60 playing members.
I asked him about the seeming disconnect between Beethoven’s powerful Fifth Symphony with its emphasis on an individual’s sense of worth, identity and dignity and the Sixth with its serene embrace of all Nature—how two such disparate works could not only come from the same composer but be written and published back to back. “Beethoven’s music takes us from the Classical era to the Romanticism of the 19th century,” Thorgaard explained. “Amazingly, both the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies were premiered at the same event in 1808, demonstrating two distinct facets of the composer’s character. If the Fifth expresses Beethoven’s angst over his loss of hearing, the Sixth reveals the solace he found in nature.”
In addition to Beethoven’s Pastoral, Maestro Thorgaard leads the KMS in a performance of the famous and melodious overture to Orphée aux Enfers (1858) by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), France’s foremost operetta composer. Finally, this concert’s featured soloist is flutist Emmalie Ruth Olsen, a Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School student and Senior Division winner of the Moraine Area Private Music Teachers Organization’s annual Concerto Competition. She joins Thorgaard and the KMS for the first movement of the Concerto in G Major by Giovanni Pergolesi (1710-1736). Of the latter, Thorgaard comments: “He was a rather prolific and influential Italian composer in spite of a compositional career lasting only six years.” In addition to stage and chamber works, Pergolesi is perhaps best known today by his sacred music output, especially his last composition, Stabat Mater.
The Kettle Moraine Symphony’s principal bass and professor of music at UW-Washington County Peter Gibeau will present a free pre-concert talk beginning at 1 p.m. to help familiarize audience members with these three works.
The concert, “Countryside Delights,” takes place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 13 at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 1044 S. Silverbrook Drive, West Bend. For tickets and further information, call 262-334-3469 or visit kmsymphony.org.
