PERFORMERS

ORQUESTRA SIMFÒNICA DE BARCELONA I NACIONAL DE CATALUNYA (OBC)
Josep Caballé Domènech, conductor

WORKS

BEETHOVEN: Symphony no. 6, “Pastoral”
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony no. 2, “Little Russian”

Nature and history provide the core at the essence of this programme. Written and premièred in 1808, Beethoven's Pastoral is a masterly exercise in voyeurism of the natural world. At a time when his health was worsening and the political climate after Napoleon's invasion of Vienna (1805) augured badly, Beethoven took refuge in Heiligenstadt, where he had written his great artistic testament. Used to being cryptic with his listeners, his Sixth is an exercise in clarity in which Beethoven wants to make his listener a part of the scenes of nature. For its part, Tchaikovsky's Second (which critic Nikolai Dmitrievitch named in reference to the Ukraine) is a compendium of popular Ukrainian songs that Tchaikovsky discovered in his sister's village, in the outskirts of Kiev. Premièred in 1873, it satisfied the more conservative Russian nationalists, especially Rimsky-Korsakov, who did their best to have the composer as an ally. Fortunately, he continued along his own path.