Programme note
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No 4 in B flat major, Op 60 (1806)
Adagio – Allegro vivace
Adagio
Allegro vivace
Allegro ma non troppo
The rule of thumb about Beethoven’s symphonies used to be that the odd-numbered ones were masculine, assertive, dramatic, heroic; the even-numbered ones feminine, lyrical, good-tempered, humorous – and, apart from the Pastoral, slightly less popular. Though Schumann hailed the Fourth Symphony as a “slender Grecian maiden”, it was always the Cinderella of the symphonies, never quite glamorous enough to distract attention from Nos 3 and 5, yet notable for its pace and its moments of pungency. To dismiss it as inferior would be a profound mistake. It is a work whose lyricism is constantly threatened by thudding rhythms and by patches of darkness from which the music emerges into sudden sunlight.
Composed in 1806, alongside the Fifth Symphony, it begins very differently with a slow, mysterious, somewhat ominous introduction whose apparent inactivity provoked Weber’s famous jeer about a few notes spread over five minutes. Certainly this veiled, hesitant music, with its probing harmonies and softly stalking tread, must have perplexed more people than Weber among its early listeners. But suddenly, with a series of loud upward thrusts, the pulse quickens and a hammering theme, previously hinted at, is stated boldly by the full orchestra. The Allegro section, filled with perky little woodwind themes and abrupt changes of direction, is at last in action. Though the music is sometimes reduced to the merest thread of tone, an immense crescendo over a drum-roll - one of the most exciting moments in the entire symphony - signals the start of the recapitulation.
In the Adagio, the rocking rhythm heard at the outset forms the movement’s steady heartbeat, sometimes soft, sometimes loud. Much admired by Berlioz, who said it seized him with emotion, the music sings and sighs its way towards a hauntingly nocturnal theme for clarinet with a tender, decoratively muted violin accompaniment.
Swinging cross-rhythms in the third movement show the title menuetto to be a Beethovenian understatement (though Furtwangler conducted it famously slowly). The music, in fact, is a sardonic scherzo, one of Beethoven’s double ones in which the trio section - a sweet pastoral interlude in which the oboe plays a star role - innovatively comes round twice.
Although Beethoven claimed that he learnt little from his composition lessons with Haydn, he provided his Fourth Symphony with a remarkably Haydnesque finale. The main theme and its spirited successors are spun right round the orchestra in exhilaratingly perpetual motion. Even the bassoon is granted a solo spot when, at the start of the recapitulation, it delivers its own whizzing version of the main theme.
© Conrad Wilson
