A Pastoral Evening

Beethoven wrote his "Pastoral" Symphony at the same time he wrote his famous Fifth Symphony. A mirror opposite of the fiery Fifth, the "Pastoral" depicts a serene country existence - something Beethoven (the nature lover) pursued as often as possible in his own life. We'll hear it tonight from the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique under John Eliot Gardiner.

We'll also hear some Fantasias on Christmas Carols by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and music for the lute by Johann Sebastian Bach. Barthold Kuijken and company serve up one of Georg Philip Telemann's "Parisian" Quartets; later in the evening it's the hauntingly melismatic "Missa Lumen de Lumine" by Korean composer Sungji Hong (performed by Trio Mediaeval).