suggesting the play of sun, breeze and water, and the chirps of the nightingale, the quail and the cuckoo are also heard towards its end. This movement, like the previous one, is in sonata form (exposition, development and recapitulation). The third movement, called Merry Gathering of the Peasants, is completely different in atmosphere from the two previous ones. This is a vivid scherzo, full of dance-rhythms and the shrill sounds of the wind instruments. After the suggested contredanse trio, the scherzo returns vigorously. The bursting of the Thunderstorm, Tempest interrupts the peasants' festivities, gathering momentum all through this movement. The lightning, the thunder and the blowing winds are depicted by the broken tremolo of the cellos and double-basses, leading to an impressive outburst of the whole orchestra. The storm subsides gradually and the fifth movement follows immediately, without pause. This final movement, Shepherds' Song - Happy and Thankful Feelings After the Storm, opens with the clarinet and the horn, sounding very much like the Alpine cow-herders' tunes, joined by the other instruments in a kind of festive and optimistic chorale, which concludes the entire work. Beethoven, the greatest innovator of symphonic structure at the beginning of the nineteenth century, influenced all the composers who followed him. One of his innumerable innovations is seen in this enchanting symphony: it is the only one in which he deviated from the traditional formula of the four-movement symphony, adding a fifth one. Tsilli Rudik
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