Les Pléiades - Beethoven & Schönberg (2020) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

"No one on earth loves nature more than I. I like a tree more than a fellow man." (Ludwig van Beethoven).

Composed in 1808 along with the Fifth Symphony, the Sixth Symphony, called ‘Pastoral,’ constitutes an exception in Beethoven's ‘heroic’ period. Through its five movements, he paints an idyllic world of nature, country scenes in which folk music themes mingle with the sounds of nature disturbed by a storm.

In this symphony, Beethoven depicts man's profound feelings towards nature, employing a resolutely modern writing style that blazes a trail towards Romanticism. As soon as the work was published, the organist and composer Michael Gottard Fischer shared his transcription of the Sixth Symphony for string sextet with salon audiences all over Europe. In his visionary writing, he was able to utilize the timbre and power of the six string instruments to reproduce Beethoven's idea. In this way, the transcription naturally takes its place in chamber music repertoire.

In 1899, Arnold Schönberg, founder of the Viennese school, was inspired by a poem from his friend Richard Dehmel to compose Verklärte Nacht, dedicated to his love at the time, Mathilde Zemlinsky. ‘Your poems have exercised a decisive influence on my development as a composer. They have pushed me to find a new lyrical tone.

Tracklist:
01. Symphonie No. 6 en Fa Majeur, Op. 68: I. Allegro ma non troppo (Arr. for String Sextet)
02. Symphonie No. 6 en Fa Majeur, Op. 68: II. Andante molto moto (Arr. for String Sextet)
03. Symphonie No. 6 en Fa Majeur, Op. 68: III. Allegro (Arr. for String Sextet)
04. Symphonie No. 6 en Fa Majeur, Op. 68: IV. Allegro [ ] (Arr. for String Sextet)
05. Symphonie No. 6 en Fa Majeur, Op. 68: V . Allegretto (Arr. for String Sextet)
06. Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4

Personnel:
Les Pléiades:
Laetitia Ringeval, violin
Caroline Florenville, violin
Carole Dauphin, viola
Marie Kuchinski, viola
Jennifer Hardy, cello
Amaryllis Jarczyk, cello