Join the Charlottesville Symphony on a journey to the countryside. Ludwig van Beethoven named his Sixth Symphony the “Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life.” Movements titled “Awakening of Cheerful Feelings on Arrival in the Country,” “Scene by the Brook,” “The Merry Gathering of Country Folk,” “Thunderstorm,” and “The Shepherd’s Cheerful and Thankful Feelings After the Storm” reflect his deep love of nature.

Metacosmos by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdóttir is a perfect complement to the Pastoral Symphony. The Boston Globe says, “There is possibly no other composer working today who is so adept at channeling the massive forces of nature…” Let yourself be enveloped and astonished by this eerie, shimmering sound sculpture that evokes an enormous vista of time and space.

Maurice Ravel was a master of orchestral color and light.  Alborada del gracioso (“Morning Song of the Jester” translated from the Spanish) is a high-spirited orchestration of one of five movements from his piano suite Miroirs. It is full of sun and surf and sounds reminiscent of strummed Spanish guitars.