Beethoven Symphony No. 6 In F Major, Op. 68 ("Pastorale") by Ludwig van Beethoven; Bruno Walter; Columbia Symphony Orchestra Columbia (MS 6012) Publication date 1958

GUARANTEED HIGH FIDELITY  

MS 6012  

BEETHOVEN  

SYMPHONY NO. 6 IN F MAJOR, Op. 68 (‘Pastorale’)  


BRUNO WALTER  
conducting the COLUMBIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA  


BRUNO WALTER began his musical  
career when, in March, 1894, as a young  
man of seventeen, he ascended the pod-  
ium for the first time at the Cologne  
Opera House. Now, in his seventh decade  

| of active service to the world of music,  
he stands indusputably as one of the  
great creative conductors of the century.  


In recent years, at the summit of his  
| powers, he has taken time out to look  
| back at the earlier moments of a life  
“filled to the brink with music.” His  
autobiography, Theme and Variations,  
begins with the statement that had he  
been a composer he would “never have  
written this book; an autobiography  
of sound would have satisfied my urge  

| to express myself. However, I have made  

i only the music of others sound forth, I  
have been. but a ‘re-creator’.”  

“And so,” he concludes this Preface,  

“a modest apostle of music and its great  
| works, I venture to record my life be-  
cause it has served music’s timeless pow-  
er and beauty, and because its transitor-  
| imess has been blessed by an alliance with  
| the immortal. For the works of the cre-  
ative spirit last, they are essentially im-  
| perishable, while the world-stirring his-  
| torical activities of even the most emi-  
nent men are circumscribed by time.  
| Napoleon is dead—but Beethoven lives.”  


May we make the perhaps obvious  

comment that the orchestral Beethoven  

i lives only by virtue of the services of  

| such musical “re-creators” as Dr. Walter.  

i And that, whether he acknowledges it  

or not, he has indeed written his auto-  

biography in sound—in the sound of his  

| immortal recorded performances of these  
i great works.  


Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op.  
68 (‘Pastorale’)  


First movement: (Cheerful impressions  
awakened by arrival in the country. Allegro  
ma non troppo, F major, 2/4). This astonish-  
ing landscape seems as if it were the joint  
work of Poussin and Michelangelo. The com-  
poser of Fidelio and the “Eroica” wishes in  
this symphony to depict the tranquility of the  
country and the peaceful life of shepherds.  
The herdsmen begin to appear in the fields,  


THIS COLUMBIA STEREO  

Ludwig van Beethoven born in Bonn,  
Germany, December 16, 1770; died in  
Vienna, March 26, 1827.  

Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68  
(Pastorale” composed in 1808, pub-  
lished in 1809. First performed in Vienna  
at the Theater an der Wien, December  
22, 1808. Its movements are:  

I. Allegro ma non troppo (Cheerful  
impression awakened by arrival in the  
country.)  

II. Andante molto moto (Scene by  
brook.)  

III. Allegro (Merry gathering of coun-  
try folk.)  

IV. Allegro (Thunderstorm; tempest.)  

V. Allegretto (Shepherd’s song; glad  
and grateful feelings after the storm.)  

Bruno Walter born in Berlin, Septem-  
ber 15, 1876.  

moving about with their usual nonchalant .  


gait; their pipes are heard afar and near.  
Ravishing phrases caress one’s ears deli-  
ciously, like perfumed morning breezes.  
Flocks of chattering birds fly overhead; and  
now and then the atmosphere seems laden  
with vapors; heavy clouds flit across the face  
of the sun, then suddenly disappear, and its  
rays flood the fields and woods with torrents  
of dazzling splendor. These are images  
evoked in my mind by hearing this move-  
ment; and I fancy that, in spite of the  
vagueness of instrumental expression, many  
hearers will receive the same impression.  


Second movement: (Scene by the brook.  
Andante molto moto, B-flat major, 12/8).  
Next is a movement devoted to contemplation.  
Beethoven, without doubt, created this ad-  


| mirable adagio while reclining on the grass,  


his eyes uplifted, ears intent, fascinated by  
the thousand varying hues of light and  
sound, looking at and listening at the same  
time to the scintillating ripple of the brook  
that breaks its waves over the pebbles of its  
shores. How delicious this music is!  


Third movement: (Merry gathering of  
country folk. Allegro, F major, 3/4). In this  
movement the poet leads us into the midst  
of a joyous reunion of peasants. We are  
aware that they dance and laugh, at first  
with moderation; the oboe plays a gay air,  







accompanied by a bassoon, which apparently  
can sound but two notes. Beethoven doubtless  
intended thus to evoke the picture of some  
good old German peasant, mounted on a cask,  
and playing a dilapidated old instrument,  
from which he can draw only two notes in the  
key of F, the dominant and the tonic. Every  
time the oboe strikes up its musettelike tune,  
fresh and gay as a young girl dressed in her  


Sunday clothes, the old bassoon comes in.  


puffing his two notes; when the melodic  
phrase modulates, the bassoon is silent per-  
force, counting patiently his rests until the  
return of the original key permits him to  
come in with his imperturbable F, C, F.  
This effect, so charmingly grotesque, gener-  
ally fails to be noticed by the public.  


The dance becomes animated, noisy, furi-  
ous. The rhythm changes; a melody of grosser  
character, in duple time, announces the ar-  
rival of the mountaineers with their heavy  
sabots. The section in triple time returns,  
still more lively. The dance becomes a med-  
ley, a rush; the women’s hair begins to fall  
over their shoulders, for the mountaineers  
have brought with them a bibulous gaiety.  
There is clapping of hands, shouting; the  
peasants run, then rush madly . . . when a  
muttering of thunder in the distance causes  
a sudden fright in the midst of the dance.  
Surprise and consternation seize the dancers,  
and they seek safety in flight.  


Fourth movment: (Thunderstorm; tem-  
pest. Allegro, F minor, 4/4). I despair of be-  
ing able to give an idea of this prodigious  
movement. It must be heard in order to ap-  


preciate the degree of truth and sublimity ~  
which descriptive music can attain in the.  


hands of a man like Beethoven. Listen to  
those gusts of wind, laden with rain; those  
sepulchral groanings of the basses; those  


shrill whistles of the piccolo, which announce  


that a fearful tempest is about to burst. The  
hurricane approaches, swells; an immense  
chromatic streak, starting from the highest  
notes of the orchestra, goes burrowing down  
into its lowest depths, seizes the basses,  
carries them along, and ascends again, writh-  
ing like a whirlwind, which levels everything  
in its passage. Then the trombones burst  
forth; the thunder of the timpani redoubles  
its fury. It is no longer merely a wind and  
rain storm: it is a frightful cataclysm, the  
universal deluge, the end of the world. Truly  


MS 6012:  


COLUMBIA  


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MASTERWORKS  







this produces vertigo, and many persons lis-  
tening to this storm do not know whether  
the emotion they experience is pleasure or  
pain.  


Fifth movement: (Shepherd’s song; glad  
and grateful feelings after the storm. Alle-  
gretto, F major, 6/8). The symphony ends  
with a hymn of gratitude. Everything smiles.  
The shepherds reappear; they answer each  
other on the mountain, recalling their scat-  
tered flocks. The sky is serene, the torrents  
soon cease to flow. Calmness returns, and  
with it the rustic songs, whose gentle mel-  
odies bring repose to the soul after the con-  
sternation produced by the magnificent hor-  
ror of the previous picture.  


HECTOR BFRLIOZ  
* *  


Other Stereo Fidelity recordings released  
by Columbia Records are:  

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tains of Rome. The Philadelphia Orchestra,  
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor. MS 6001  


Bartok: Concerto for Violin. Isaac Stern,  
Violinist; New York Philharmonic, Leonard  
Bernstein, Conductor. MS 6002.  


Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite. The Philadel-  
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tor. — 3 MS 6003 _  


Prokofiev: Symphony No..5 in B flat Major,  
Op. 100. The .Philadelphig Orchestra, Eu-  
gene Ormandy, Conductor. - MS 6004  


Bach at Zwolle. Three Preludes’ ‘and Fugues  
played on the Arp Schnitger Dee of 1720. . |  
E. Power Biggs, Organist. KS 6005 a  


Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 i in B Minor,  
Op. 74 (“Pathetique??).. New . York Philhar-  
monic, Besta: Ronda, Conductor.  

2 MS 6006  


RA sii Night; "Vailehan  
Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas  
Tallis. Strings of the New York Philharmonic  
Dimitri Mitropoulos, Conductor, MS 6007 a  


Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps. i!  
York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, Con-  
ductor. MS 6010  


Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in 0 Minor (“Re-.  
surrection”). Bruno Walter conducting the  
New York Philharmonic with Emilia. Cun-  
dari, Soprano; Maureen Forrester, Contral-  
to and the Westminster Choir, John Finley  


Williamson, Director. M2S 601 .  


* * *  


ws Library of Congress catalog card number o  
R58-1156 applies to this record. è  


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