PROGRAM NOTES
EXPECTATIONS REDEFINED
On December 22, 1808, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) held a concert of his music in
Vienna where he had been living for sixteen
years. The concert opened with what we now
call Symphony No. 6 in F Major, op. 68, or
the Pastoral Symphony, but in 1808 Beethoven simply advertised it as “A Recollection
of Country Life” and labeled it “no. 5.” The
symphony was followed by “Ah! perfido,” a
concert aria he had composed in 1796, and
a movement from his Mass in C Major. The
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, op. 58, completed the first half of the concert. A “Grand
Symphony,” now known as the Fifth Symphony, but then labeled “no. 6,” opened the second half of the concert. After another movement from the Mass in C Major, Beethoven
improvised at the piano before the final piece,
the Choral Fantasy, op. 80, for piano, orchestra, and chorus. It was a very cold night and
the concert lasted about four hours, leading
composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt—a fan
of Beethoven’s music and a guest of Beethoven’s patron Prince Lobkowitz—to famously
remark that the concert proved a person
could have too much of a good thing.
Beethoven completed the Piano Concerto
No. 4 in the spring of 1807. This was the last
piano concerto Beethoven performed in public due, in part, to his continued hearing loss.
For some in the audience in December 1808,
the concerto was probably not new; they may
have heard Beethoven play it at Prince Lobkowitz’s home, which was the scene of many
concerts. It was also where Beethoven had
met Archduke Rudolph, to whom he dedicated the concerto. This was the first of many
dedications to the archduke, including the
piano trio nicknamed for him, and the Missa
Solemnis: a work Beethoven intended for the
archduke’s elevation to Cardinal Archbishop in 1820, but did not complete in time. A
passionate and serious musician, Archduke
Rudolph—a grandson of Maria Theresa and
half-brother of the reigning emperor—studied piano and composition with Beethoven.
When the archduke performed at Prince Lobkowitz’s house, he often played Beethoven’s
music.
Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4 embraces the
multiple meanings of the word “concerto” —
whether contest or collaboration—and never
settles on just one type of relationship between the soloist and orchestra. Rather, the
relationship between the two is always in flux.
Solo piano begins the concerto with the first
statement of the opening material. Although
Mozart had previously begun a concerto
with solo piano, this was still an unusual way
for a concerto to start. Beethoven marked
the soloist’s opening piano (quiet) and dolce
(sweet), yet it commands our attention. With
this first phrase, Beethoven constructs a kind
of musical question for the piano. After the
slightest pause, the orchestra plays the same
melodic material but with a harmonic twist,
bringing the focus back to itself. In this way,
orchestra and soloist carve out their own
musical space while still complementing one
another before settling into the more conventional roles expected in the first movement of
a concerto.
In the second movement, Andante con moto, the character
of the musical statements exchanged between the soloist and orchestra remains distinct; the two do not express
the same mood until the end of the movement. The strings
play in unison to open the Andante movement and just as
the orchestra interrupted the soloist in the first movement,
the piano now interrupts the orchestra. This interruption,
however, is less surprising harmonically because the piano
builds chords from the last note of the orchestral statement.
The movement continues in this way, with bold statements
played by the unison strings and chordal elaborations in the
piano in a back-and-forth exchange of ideas—the distinctive
moods of each subtly united.
A brief figure in the piano closes the second movement,
which, unexpectedly, leads directly into the third movement. In this dazzling Rondo both piano and orchestra fall
into more traditional roles and relationships: a musical rapprochement.
INSTRUMENT SPOTLIGHT:
THE FORTEPIANO
The fortepiano played in today’s concert was built in the
1990s by Paul McNulty. Copied
from a piano built by Anton
Walter & Sohn, ca. 1805, this
piano has a five-and-a-half
octave range, a moderator (a
mechanism that places soft
leather or cloth between the
hammers and strings), and an
una corda pedal, which engages a mechanism on the piano
that allows only one string to
be struck when a key is depressed.
In the second movement of
Piano Concerto No. 4, Beethoven directs the soloist to play
una corda, resulting in a quieter
sound. Toward the end of the
movement, Beethoven instructs
the soloist to discontinue using
this effect gradually, engaging
two and then threes strings
before returning to una corda
to close the movement.
Of the eight pieces on the December 22, 1808 concert, many
were being heard in Vienna for the first time, including both
the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. Symphony No. 6, completed
in 1808 and published in Leipzig in 1809, was dedicated to
Prince Lobkowitz and Count Razumovsky, who also shared
the dedication of the Fifth Symphony. Both men were important patrons of Beethoven. Count Razumovsky, a violinist
and Prince Lobkowitz’s brother-in-law, commissioned the
opus 59, or “Razumovsky,” string quartets in 1806. In addition to the two symphonies, Beethoven dedicated many other works to Prince Lobkowitz, including his first set of String
Quartets, op. 18, and the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte.
Symphony No. 6 expands the traditional four-movement
symphonic structure to five movements, with the last three
movements being played without a pause. The role of
each movement in the story is clear and pastoral elements
are evident throughout the composition, particularly the
use of drones (long-held notes, most often in the bass),
straight-forward harmonic progressions, and lyrical, mostly conjunct melodies. The first two movements evoke the
anticipation of leaving the city for the country and then of a
scene in nature; the remaining movements introduce humans
and the impact of natural events on their activities. The title
of each movement was provided by Beethoven and he instructed his publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel, that the title of the
symphony should be Pastoral Symphony or Reminiscence of
Rural Life, More an Expression of Feeling than a Painting.
The first movement, Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the countryside, begins not with a slow introduction,
but with a hint of the main melody in the first violins over a
drone in the lower strings. This melody lingers for a moment
on one chord before the strings continue on, but does not
BEETHOVEN AND THE
WORLD BEYOND
1770
Ludwig van Beethoven is born in
Bonn.
1778
Beethoven gives
his first public
keyboard concert,
playing “various
clavier concertos
and trios.”
1791
Mozart dies in
Vienna.
1795
Paris Conservatoire is founded.
Considered the
first modern
conservatory for
musical training,
it is a model for
other conservatories.
1802
Beethoven
writes what is
now called the
“Heiligenstadt
Testament” on
October 6 and 10.
Both a will and
poignant acknowledgment of
his hearing loss,
this document
is found among
the composer’s
papers after his
death. Beethoven’s official will
of 1827 leaves his
entire estate to
his nephew Karl.
1807
Beethoven completes the Piano
Concerto No. 4 in
G Major. In March,
Beethoven probably performs
this concerto at
Prince Lobkowitz’s home.
coalesce until the whole orchestra has entered. From this
point forward, Beethoven builds the momentum to a peak
before closing the movement more gently.
1808
Beethoven
completes his
fifth and sixth
symphonies.
The symphonies
and the Piano
Concerto No. 4
are featured at a
public concert on
December 22.
The evocation of nature continues in the second movement,
Scene by the brook. Pastoral elements abound, including the
key of B flat, the 12/8 meter (four large beats, each subdivided into groups of three), and a lyrical melody supported
by a gently rocking accompaniment of lower strings plus
two solo cellos playing con sordini (with mutes), which represents the motion of the brook. The movement concludes
with bird songs in the winds, specifically marked “nightingale” in the flute, “quail” in the oboe, “cuckoo” in the clarinet.
1809
Haydn dies in
Vienna.
The calm of the second movement is dispelled in the third,
Merry gathering of the country folk. This movement carries the sense of peasant dance music through the drone
bass, which is relieved only occasionally, and the perpetual
motion of the rhythms. The traditional repetitions of the
minuet and trio sections are altered to accommodate the
transition to the next movement, Thunderstorm. Perhaps the
most descriptive of the symphony, this movement is replete
with rolls of thunder in the timpani and drops of rain in the
strings. Despite its explicit musical imagery, this movement
also reflects Beethoven’s subtitle for the work, “more an expression of feeling than a painting,” as it seems less important to hear the crash of thunder than to feel the threat of
the impending storm. The final movement, Shepherd’s song;
Cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm, opens similarly to the first movement; that is, a single melody, now played
by the clarinet, over a drone in the violas. Unlike the first
movement, this theme does not pause but moves through
the orchestra. Each return of the theme presents a slightly
different variant of the accompaniment without distorting
the bucolic feeling of the whole. The coda brings the movement and symphony to a dramatic climax then falls away
before a decisive cadence.
1814
With his painting,
The Third of May
1808, Spanish artist Francisco José
de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828)
challenges the
conventions of his
day by depicting
the Spanish resistance to Napoleon’s armies in a
more realistic and
emotionally expressive manner.
1815
The Handel and
Haydn Society
begins regular
rehearsals in May.
1816
The bell at King’s
Chapel, still used
today, is hung.
The bell is one of
the last made by
Paul Revere and
the largest bell
to be cast at his
foundry.
1827
Beethoven dies
on March 26. The
funeral is a public
event attended
by approximately
10,000 mourners.
The audience at that December 1808 concert was surely
surprised at the unexpected twists and turns in the Sixth
Symphony and Fourth Piano Concerto. The most readily apparent surprises must have been the five movements
of Symphony No. 6 and the continuation of music when
a pause was the rule—for instance, between the last two
movements of the concerto and the last three movements of
the symphony. Other moments, such as the opening musical idea of the piano concerto or the harmonic simplicity of
the last movement of the symphony, are less easily quantified but no less stunning. It is perhaps these less obvious
moments that draw listeners and performers back to these
works again and again as new possibilities of interpretation
unfold. Beethoven’s musical world, no matter how familiar,
never ceases to challenge our expectations.