Beethoven’s 6th Symphony

The first half of this week’s Arizona Encore features a Romantic-era wind ensemble and the allegro movement from a Baroque era  concerto, each with exquisite trumpet solos. And the entire second half is devoted to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastoral Symphony.  

Opening the program is a composition by 19^th Century French cornetist, conductor and composer Jean-Baptiste Arban. The melody of his lively Le Carnival de Venise, or The Carnival of Venice, is based on a recognizable Italian folk song, “My Hat, it Has Three Corners.” Arban, a virtuoso cornetist himself, was influenced by Niccolo Paganini’s violin virtuosity. In addition to composing several cornet solos, he wrote a cornet method book still used today and often referred to as the “Trumpeter’s Bible.” Arban was also on the faculty of the Paris Conservatory.

The ASU Wind Ensemble performs Arban’s Le Carnival de Venise with ASU Professor of Trumpet, Joe Burgstaller soloing, and Jason Caslor conducting. Burgstaller, who is also a member of the Canadian Brass, has performed with over four dozen orchestras nationally and internationally.  

Burgstaller also solos on the second selection of this Arizona Encore, this time with his Canadian Brass colleagues. Along with their holiday programming at a December 2023 concert, the award-winning ensemble included a classic of the repertoire, giving Burgstaller a moment to shine on the trumpet. They perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto in D Major. Like many of Bach’s Baroque-era concertos, it inspired by a Vivaldi Concerto. From their concert at Tucson’s Fox Theater, the Canadian Brass’s performance of the third, or Allegro movement of  Bach’s Concerto in D Major rounds out the first half of this Arizona Encore.  

For the second half, the ASU Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jeffery Meyer, performs Ludvig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, known as the Pastoral Symphony.  Beethoven composed his Symphony No. 6 as well as his Symphony No. 5 – one of the most recognizable symphonies in the world — with its unmistakable da-da-da-dah opening, in 1808. When he debuted both symphonies in a four-hour concert, the audience was likely relieved to hear the more contemplative Sixth, after the intense and at times even ominous-sounding Symphony No. 5.

This was Beethoven’s “middle” or “Viennese period.” Significant internal and external factors contributed to his music’s intensity.  Internally, he had been experiencing progressive hearing loss for over a decade, which was contributing to his increased social isolation and depression. Externally, the Napoleonic Wars were raging, and Europe was also undergoing rapid changes in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies reflect not only the disruptions of his time, but also the burgeoning Romantic era’s ideals of individual self-expression and fascination with nature and the supernatural. To many, they are also a bridge between the Classical and Romantic Eras. With his Pastoral Symphony, Beethoven paints a picture of folks enjoying an outing in a bucolic country setting until a storm moves in in the fourth movement. But with his added fifth movement, he shows that all is well again; the storm has passed.