Ode to Nature: Beethoven's "Pastoral"

Beethoven's love of nature has always occupied artists. In the famous painting by Joseph Karl Stieler, Beethoven composes surrounded by plants. Do you see the forest in the background?

Ludwig van Beethoven spent many of his afternoons in nature. If an idea came to him, he immediately wrote it down in a small notebook that he always carried with him. This drawing shows him during one of his long walks.

"Almighty in the forest!" Beethoven wrote in 1815. "I am blessed, happy in the forest: every tree speaks through you. - Oh God, what glory! In such a forest, in the heights, there is peace, peace to serve it."

In his sixth symphony, the "Pastorale", Beethoven musically expresses his longing for country life. "More an expression of feeling than painting," he writes, giving free rein to his romantic feelings.

In the second movement the stream murmurs in the strings - until suddenly nightingale, quail and cuckoo make their big entrance. They are played by flute, oboe and clarinet. Anyone who can read Beethoven's writing can recognize it here in the notes.

In the symphony's fourth movement, Beethoven creates a threatening thunderstorm mood. The piccolo flute whistles like the storm, the cellos and basses rumble like thunder and the violins leap through the score like lightning.