BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, May 8, 1826

The fourth Royal Academic Concert is held today in London, England, and opens with Beethoven’s Sinfonie Pastorale. The Harmonicon for June, 1826 (Nr.XLII) reported at 130, “The Pastoral Symphony was well performed, but in its best state is always too long, particularly the second movement, which, abounding in repetitions, might be shortened without the slightest danger of injuring that particular part, and with the certainty of improving the effect of the whole. The following short account of the composer’s intentions, printed in the books of the performances, imparted a good deal of interest to this piece:—
First movement (2/4) Pastoral.
Second…..(12/8) Scene on the bank of a rivulet.—(Imitation of the nightingale and the cuckoo.)
Third…..(3/4) Rustic dance.
Fourth……..Storm.
Last…..(6/8) The shepherd’s song of gratitude.”

The Pastoral Symphony is here performed by Daniel Barenboim conducting the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in the 2012 Proms at the Royal Albert Hall: