Beethoven's Pastoral & Montgomery From

th 44 Season Beethoven’s Pastoral & Montgomery from MAG Vanden Brul Pavillion, Memorial Art Gallery 500 East Avenue, Rochester NY Beethoven Symphony No. 6, ‘Pastoral’, arranged for String Sextet by M. G. Fischer (1810) Beethoven reveled in walking in the environs of Vienna and spent nearly every summer in the country. Beethoven's letters are filled with declarations of the importance of nature in his life, such as one from 1810: "How delighted I will be to ramble for awhile through the bushes, woods, under trees, through grass, and around rocks. No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo that man desires to hear." Beethoven’s "Pastoral" Symphony belongs to a tradition, going back to the previous century, of "characteristic" symphonies. Scattered comments that Beethoven made in his sketches for the Symphony are revealing: "The hearers should be allowed to discover the situations.” “Anyone who has an idea of country life can make out for himself the intentions of the composer without many titles.” “Also, without titles the whole will be recognized as a matter more of feeling than of painting in sounds." Beethoven wrote his Sixth Symphony during the spring and fall of 1808, although some sketches date back years earlier. Its composition overlapped in part with that of the Fifth Symphony, which might be considered its non-identical twin. Not only did both have the same period of genesis and the same dedicatees (Count Razumovsky and Prince Lobkowitz), but they were also published within weeks of one another and premiered together (in reverse order and with their numbers switched). The title given by Beethoven to his Sixth Symphony is Pastoral Symphony or Recollections of Country Life. He gave each of the five movements a descriptive headnote. The first movement, Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arriving in the country, engages with a long musical tradition of pastoral music. The leisurely and often repetitive pace of the movement is far from the intensity of the Fifth Symphony. The second movement, Scene by the brook, includes the famous birdcalls: flute for the nightingale, oboe for the quail, and two clarinets for the cuckoo. The third is entitled Merry gathering of peasants and suggests a town band of limited ability playing dance music. The dance is interrupted by a Tempest, storm that approaches from afar as ominous rumblings give way to the full fury of thunder and lightning. Just as the storm had approached gradually, so it passes, leaving some scattered moments of disruption before the Shepherds’ hymn—Happy and thankful feelings after the storm brings the work to its close. The première of the “Pastoral” Symphony was in Beethoven's famous marathon concert of December 22, 1808, at the Theater an der Wien (Vienna). The program included the first public performances of the Sixth Symphony, the Fifth Symphony, the Fourth Piano Concerto, two movements from the Mass in C, the concert aria Ah! perfido, and the "Choral" Fantasy. Reports indicate that all did not go well, as musicians playing after limited rehearsal struggled their way through hours of demanding new music. Although Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”, was not well received upon its premiere in 1808, it was highly praised in an article published two years later in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. The author of the article was Michael Gottard Fischer, who would publish his arrangement of the symphony for string sextet that same year. Michael Gottard Fischer was an organist and composer, born near Erfurt Germany in 1773, he studied organ and counterpoint with one of J. S. Bach’s grandchildren, Johann Christian Kittel, and was appointed organist at the Barfüßerkirche and director of the city concerts in Erfurt. In 1809 he succeeded Kittel as organist at the Erfurt Predigerkirche and from 1816 also taught at the Erfurt teacher’s seminary. He lived until 1829. Although well regarded in his time, Fischer and his music are virtually forgotten now. His vocal and organ music were well known and he did not ignore chamber music, writing two string quartets, a string quintet a piano quartet and this string sextet. While Fischer was almost an exact contemporary of Beethoven, there is no evidence to suggest they knew each other nor is their any indication that Beethoven either asked or authorized Fischer to make his string sextet arrangement of the symphony. On the other hand, Beethoven would certainly have known of the arrangement and could well have expressed his dissatisfaction since Fischer’s arrangement was brought out at virtually the same time that Breitkopf and Härtel, the publisher to whom Beethoven sold the Symphony, brought out the original orchestral parts and score in 1810. In all likelihood, Beethoven was pleased with Fischer’s arrangement as this gave his symphony a much wider audience than it otherwise would have enjoyed. Beethoven’s symphonic legacy wasn’t always heard in the format in which it is known today. At the time the symphonies were premiered, the technical development of musical instruments was still limited, orchestral sizes were small, concert venues were semi-public or semi-private, and European governments were highly suspicious of large gatherings after the French Revolution, discouraging them for fear of potential revolutionary plotting. At this same time a huge new market for chamber music came into existence, as home music making became one of the most poplar pastimes for the emerging bourgeois classes of Western Europe. Both composers and publishers, with an eye towards profits, made a regular practice of arranging large-scale works by well-known composers as chamber music works. Arrangements should be understood as translations, a re-writing of the original work that can reveal hidden dimensions of the original and adapts it to a specific audience and cultural environment. Therefore, it is not a smaller version of a larger work, or a “mere” transcription of the original composition, but a re-creation that provides a new interpretation of a well-known work, expanding its horizons and enriching its significance. The string sextet, an unusual ensemble still uncommon during the early 1800s, behaves as an enriched quartet in this arrangement: Fischer assigns the parts performed by the strings in the original score to the first violin, first viola and second cello and the woodwind parts to the other three instruments. Using these six string instruments, Fischer captures the essence of one of Beethoven’s most lyrical and contemplative compositions. We can just see Beethoven strolling through the countryside, the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders, breathing in the cool fresh air, taking in the invigorating sights and sounds. There are even skips in his rhythmic gait. Jessie Montgomery, “Strum” (2006; revised 2012) Jessie Montgomery is an acclaimed composer, violinist, and educator. She is the recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and her works are performed frequently around the world by leading musicians and ensembles. Her music interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice, placing her squarely as one of the most relevant interpreters of 21st-century American sound and experience. Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated to the hotbed of artistic experimentation and community development. Her parents – her father a musician, her mother a theater artist and storyteller – were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances, and parties where neighbors, activists, and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life that merges composing, performance, education, and advocacy. Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports young African-American and Latinx string players. She currently serves as composer-in- residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, the Organization’s flagship professional touring ensemble. A two-time laureate of the annual Sphinx Competition, she was awarded a generous MPower grant to assist in the development of her debut album, Strum: Music for Strings. She has received additional grants and awards from the ASCAP Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Composers Orchestra, the Joyce Foundation, and the Sorel Organization. Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works. Some recent highlights include Rhapsody No. 2 and Peace (2020), Five Slave Songs (2018) commissioned for soprano Julia Bullock by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Records from a Vanishing City (2016) for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Caught by the Wind (2016) for the Albany Symphony and the American Music Festival, and Banner (2014) – written to mark the 200th anniversary of The Star-Spangled Banner – for The Sphinx Organization and the Joyce Foundation. Other forthcoming works include a nonet inspired by the Great Migration, told from the perspective of Montgomery’s great-grandfather William McCauley, to be performed by Imani Winds and the Catalyst Quartet; a cello concerto for Thomas Mesa jointly commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, and The Sphinx Organization; and a new orchestral work for the National Symphony. Jessie is also teaming up with composer- violinist Jannina Norpoth on a commission to reimagine Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha, being produced by VolcanoTheater. Jessie began her violin studies, at the Third Street Music School Settlement, one of the oldest community organizations in the country. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and currently a member of the Catalyst Quartet, she continues to maintain an active performance career as a violinist appearing regularly with her own ensembles, as well as with the Silkroad Ensemble and Sphinx Virtuosi.

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