Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony (“Pastorale”) was written in the summer months of 1807 and 1808. The first performance of the work – along with that of the Fifth Symphony – took place on 22 December 1808 as part of a musical “Akademie,” or subscription concert, in the Theater an der Wien under the direction of the composer.

Peter Hauschild’s Urtext edition of the “Pastorale” is based on all the important primary sources: autograph, first edition of the parts (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1809), copies of scores supervised by Beethoven and, finally, the first edition of the score. Hauschild has combined source criticism and the requirements of performance practice while also keeping the Critical Report succinct and easy to grasp; this makes the editorial decisions easy to trace.