It’s said that when Beethoven became deaf, the music he missed above all was birdsong. The ‘Pastoral’ Symphony is a tender, affectionate picture of the countryside he loved so much, from a babbling brook to a violent thunderstorm. But it’s not merely pictorial. In this very personal music, Beethoven pours out his joy at being in nature.

Joy in the Seventh Symphony is all about rhythm. Wagner referred to this work as the ‘apotheosis of the dance’. He was right. This irresistible music skips and springs and leaps with vigour, yet also with miraculous lightness and grace.

 

Conductor: Giordano Bellincampi

Beethoven, Symphony No.6 ‘Pastoral’
Beethoven, Symphony No.7