Within the first fewyears on the “new path,” Beethoven wrote his masterful Third through SixthSymphonies, the three Razumovsky Quartets, Fourth Piano Concerto and theViolin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61.
The latter is, in fact,one of the superb achievements of Beethoven’s new direction in music, clearlydescended from its Classical predecessors yet far beyond them in scope, settingnew standards for compositions of its kind with its great breadth and makingpossible the subsequent violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruch andTchaikovsky. Indeed, Beethoven biographer George Marek called it “the Mount Everest of violin concertos.”
The D Major Concerto’smonumental first movement is based upon the simple four timpani taps with whichit begins (Beethoven showing hereas in the famous opening of his FifthSymphonyhow he can make musical mountains out of molehills). The hymnlikesecond movement (Larghetto) is one of Beethoven’s loveliest orchestral pieces,eventually leading directly into a glorious Rondo-Finale.
Two years laterBeethoven wasn’t climbing a majestic music mountain but tramping through thewoods with his Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 (Pastoral). In thisremarkable work, Beethoven’s love of Nature with a capital “N” is worn on hissleeve. As a boy growing up in Bonn he would walk the local woods with hisfathera pastime he would enjoy all his life (he was known to shun umbrellasand instead walk in the pouring rain and commonly rejected living quarters fromwhich he couldn’t see trees).
Thus it was that, in thelittle village of Heiligenstadt on the banks of the Danube,he set about composing “something in which the emotions are expressed which arearoused…by the pleasure of the country.” Though he didn’t want “program music,”he came rather close, even giving specific titles to each of the PastoralSymphony’s movements. The opening Allegro ma non troppo Beethoven called“Awakening of serene impressions on arriving in the country.” A tranquil “Sceneby the brookside” follows, complete with birdsong. Then comes the “Jollygathering of country folk” with its rustic charm, eventually giving way to anapproaching “Thunderstorm” fourth movement. When this finally passes and theSun re-emerges, the Finale arrives as a “Shepherd’s song; gladsome and thankfulfeelings after the storm.”
Beethoven’s PastoralSymphony is succinctly summed up by musicologist Sir George Grove as “acheerful, genial, beneficent view over the whole realm of Nature…”
The MilwaukeeSymphony Orchestra under Maestro Edo de Waart performs both these works atUihlein Hall on March 5-7. Acclaimed Russian violinist Vadim Repin is thesoloist in the D Major Concerto.
