BEETHOVEN | Symphony no. 6 in F major, op. 68, Pastoral
STRAUSS (arr. HONECK & ILLE) | Elektra Suite
From Beethoven’s Countryside to Strauss’s Inferno
What better way to open a new season than with the Pastoral Symphony, a visionary work that opened new possibilities for symphonic music and gave it a vivid narrative voice? Honeck juxtaposes its evocation of Beethoven’s love of nature – where flowing streams and birdsong yield to the exhilaration of a thunderstorm and radiant thanksgiving – with his own Suite from Strauss’s Elektra.. Set against the mythic backdrop of Mycenae in the years after the Trojan War, the Suite further distils the seething world of Elektra, Clytemnestra, and Orest through its music of psychological violence, dark obsession, and explosive orchestral brilliance.
