Coriolano beethoven symphony

As far as Beethoven was concerned, his Sixth Symphony is self-explanatory.

“Anyone who has the faintest idea of rural life,” the composer offered, “will have no need of descriptive titles”—though, presumably just to be safe, he then provided subheadings for each movement and gave the larger work its “Pastoral” moniker.

To judge from Saturday night’s performance at Symphony Hall, Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra dig country living.

Though they might have underlined one or two of the Sixth’s inspirations a bit more insistently—the rustic scherzo was a touch heavy-footed and the fourth-movement thunderstorm lacked menace—yet their larger reading ably captured the music’s subtleties.

Picking up where Thursday’s lyrical account of the Fifth left off,this latest installment in the BSO’s complete Beethoven sym