This edition of La Pastorale is based on the sole surviving source, the manuscript Ms 12061 of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The work was probably written around 1800. The predominant key of F major conforms to the convention of the period for a work entitled “pastoral”. On the first page, Reicha writes the subtitle “sonate facile” (“easy sonata”). We have, in fact, a sonata in miniature, whose five movements are to be played without breaks between them.

The first, third and last move...