Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral,” and Four Dance Episodes from Copland’s Rodeo.

Though tonight’s program features three “nature boy” composers, they all came to express their love of nature through music in different and distinctive ways. Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, and much of his early music had a jazzy, urban edginess. He invented the American sound, the endless harmonic horizon of his prairie ballets as an escape from the horrors of World War II. Felix Mendelssohn was a perpetual tourist, and penned musical impressions of Scotland’s craggy coast and Italian festivals to bring home as souvenirs in sound. Beethoven’s love of nature is much closer to home, really just a short carriage ride away. It was his one true love and solace as the silence of his deafness drew around him.

“The Pastoral Symphony” can be a bit of a puzzle. This idolized world of peasant dances, folksong, and beauty unblemished by war or physical infirmity is in the words of the composer, “more of an expression of feeling than tone painting,” but then he writes very literal imitations of bird sounds and noisy depiction of a storm that comes right out of some of the more kitschy entertainments of the day (just prior to the premiere of the Pastoral a certain Herr Mayer who specialized in vocalizing sound effect performed a “Bird Song Symphony” with full orchestra and to much acclaim). In this Eden-like setting, the trappings of religion that Beethoven normally held in disdain are transformed—the opening movement’s drive into the country becomes his processional, the “scene by the brook” becomes his anointing font, the gathering of country folk becomes his communion, and the thankful feelings after the storm becomes his “ite missa est.” And then we have the wondrously static bliss of the first and last movements—which I like to think of as opening and closing meditation on his oneness with the countryside.

It is easy to listen to this piece with the same attention you would pay to the passing landscape if you drove through this bucolic national park in a Hummer. The trick for listener and performer alike is to block out the urban noise (Beethoven’s Vienna was every bit as noisy as our own) and to slow down. Copland had to slow down, or “Rodeo” would have sounded like the morning commute. Mendelssohn had to pause to breathe in the sprit of the wind swept Scottish coast (a sprit that reemerged in the first melancholy movement of his Violin Concerto). To prepare yourself for the Pastoral Symphony, try deep breathing, or a glass of wine…but maybe not both. It important to be in the right frame of mind to experience the beauty of the slowly shifting harmonies in Beethoven’s hymn to nature—it is always in the moment—languid and lingering. I promise that we’ll do our best to bring out the most evocative aspects of Beethoven’s score—all while keeping one eye on the road. And unlike your ride home tonight—seatbelts are optional.

—Emil de Cou, NSO@Wolf Trap Festival Conductor