Ode to Nature | Beethoven 200

In inviting you to this concert, we would like to share our particular admiration for Ludwig van Beethoven's Sixth Symphony. It is difficult to escape the feeling that the Pastoral reminds us of an experience familiar to many people living in our region – that moment when all it takes is stepping outside and finding yourself among fields, forests, or by the Oder River, simply listening to the world around you.

The evening begins with music by Johann Baptist Vanhal, a composer who, during his lifetime, ranked among the most highly regarded figures of Classical Vienna, although today his name is far less familiar than those of Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven. His Concerto for Two Bassoons in F major is a true rarity in the concert repertoire. The instrumentation alone is remarkable – very few concertos from the Classical period treat two bassoons as equal soloists. It is Classicism at its finest, where beauty arises from simplicity.

It is from this very musical world that Beethoven emerged, though he took it in an entirely new direction. When he composed his Sixth Symphony between 1807 and 1808, he was already an acclaimed composer, yet was increasingly struggling with the progressive loss of his hearing. Paradoxically, it was during this difficult period that he created one of his most joyful works. Although inspired by his long walks through the countryside around Vienna, Beethoven left listeners with a crucial indication. Above the score, he wrote the words: Mehr Ausdruck der Empfindung als Malerei – More the expression of feeling than tone painting.

This sentence is the key to the entire symphony. Beethoven sought to portray what happens within a person when encountering nature. The successive movements are therefore not simply musical illustrations of landscapes, but a journey through emotions: the joy of arriving in the countryside, the peace found beside a stream, the carefree delight of a village gathering, the anxiety brought on by a violent storm, and the gratitude that follows when the skies clear once again. It is this extraordinary perspective that makes the Pastoral timeless. We all know that after a day filled with haste, it is enough to find ourselves in a forest, beside the water, or on a country path to take a deep breath and see the world with renewed calm.

We hope that today's concert will be not only an encounter with two outstanding works of Viennese Classicism and Romanticism, but also an invitation to listen more closely to the world around us. Perhaps, on your way home from the Philharmonic, you will hear birdsong, the rustling of trees, or the sound of rain a little differently. If that happens, it will be the finest proof that Beethoven still has the power to speak to our imagination.