Transformative Alchemy: Beethoven's Sixth Symphony.

An analysis of the Pastorale Symphony.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

 Beethoven and Nature.
Detail from the painting by N.C. Wyeth.

What is program music? This is a question that musicians and music critics have been wrestling with (and generally losing the match) for 200 years. The debate started in 1808, the year that Ludwig van Beethoven premiered his Symphony No. 6 in F Major, the Pastorale. While it would be Hector Berlioz who created the first detailed program for a symphony 22 years later in his Symphonie-fantastique, Beethoven pointed the way forward by substituting movement titles for the usual tempo markings. 

Concert Review: The Private Lives of the Great Composers

Beethoven and Strauss at the Lincoln Center Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Dr. Richard Strauss at the piano in 1903.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

The concept of the "program symphony," where multiple movements tell some kind of coherent story or evoke a time and place originated with Ludwig van Beethoven and the Symphony No. 6, known as the Pastorale. On Friday night, the Cleveland Orchestra played the third of four concerts this week at the Lincoln Center Festival. Music director Franz Welser-Möst paired the Pastorale with the Symphonia Domestica, a stellar example of the genre written a century later by Richard Strauss.

Concert Review: The Defense of the New

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Soprano Barbara Hannigan as the Police Chief from Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre.
Image from BarbaraHannigan.com.

Some composers still need an advocate. Today's audiences are filled with skeptics, put off by the idea of atonal music and names like Berg, Webern and Ligeti. On Friday night at Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra returned to Carnegie Hall under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, the current music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. This program cemented Sir Simon's reputation as a fearless advocate for these new sounds, interpreted through the rich, velvety texture of this top-flight ensemble.