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Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (which really should be known as the Second Sonata-Fantasy) is probably the world’s most popular bit of Great Music, and for good reason. Its peculiar brand of expressive and imagistic power is nearly unrivalled in piano literature. The first movement is one of those rare things that is, like Bach, almost totally impervious to all kinds of interpretive liberty: depending on how you play it it might sound funereal, wistful, melancholic, lyrical, or tragic, but it will never be anything but beautiful. (And interpretive complexities abound in this movement: should the semiquaver-against-triplet polyrhythm be treated literally? Should the pedal be constantly held down like B. indicated? Half-pedal? Third-pedal? Delayed-harmonic-change pedal? Even, God forbid, the sostenuto pedal? Should we play with tempo as indicated, in cut time, so that it goes at nearly twice as fast as some interpretations today, and certainly a lot faster than listeners are used to?) And, of course, there is the fact that the first movement really isn’t in sonata form (I mean, well, technically it is, but I can’t imagine people actually hearing it as sonata form), and unfolds more as a single fantasy-like melody on a really massive scale. The second movement looks pretty conventional, but there’s actually a lot of wry playfulness going on in it with the ambiguities about where exactly the implied rhythmic accents should fall, and even possible cross-rhythms in the trio. In any case, it’s a sweet little thing (Liszt called it a flower between two chasms, which is slightly too dramatic but conveys the general idea very well) whose monomaniacal use of repeated cells of music manages to convey a kind of gentle humour. The last movement is one of the miracles of the piano literature: it thrums in a state of almost perpetual climax, yet only rarely does its dynamic raise to a fortissimo. It’s quite obviously the main portion of the sonata (again, it’s worth noting that B. gradually shifted the weight of his sonatas from the front to the back), and its second theme group is richly laden with wonderful ideas. Most of this movement’s power comes from its pounding, insistent rhythm (there’s a reason so many people who enjoy technical metal like it), the sly use of contrasts, the nearly ubiquitous vibrating semiquavers, and some really dramatic Neapolitan harmony: you could teach a good number of composition lessons using it as a model, but the main thing is that it’s amazing to listen to, and rather addictive. MVT I, Adagio sostenuto (fantasy, with vague intimations of sonata form) 00:00 – Introduction 00:26 – Theme 1, modulating to E maj and C maj 01:28 – Theme 2, in (the very surprising) B min, turning into the dominant of either (iii) or (III) 02:17 – Quasi-development. Theme 1, in (iv). At 2:47 a recollection of Theme 2 appears 03:10 – Dominant preparation of extreme length 04:11 – Recapitulation, where Theme 1 returns 05:06 – Theme 2, now in (I) 06:01 – Coda, with Theme 1 in bass MVT II, Allegretto 07:17 – Scherzo 08:11 – Trio 08:57 – Scherzo da capo MVT III, Presto agitato EXPOSITION 09:33 – Theme 1 10:03 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1, in (v) 10:37 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2 10:58 – Theme Group 2, Theme 3 (Cadential Theme). Note the dotted figure borrowed from TG2, T1 DEVELOPMENT 12:49 – Theme 1, in I, modulating into (iv) 12:58 – TG2, T1, in F# min. At 13:04 shift into bass, and then into the Neapolitan at 13:10 13:23 – Dominant preparation RECAPITULATION 13:48 – Theme 1, without counterstatement, closing directly into 14:09 – TG2, T1, now in (i) 14:22 – TG2, T2, (i) 15:03 – TG2, T3 CODA 15:16 – Theme 1, broken at 15:21 by two violent statements in diminished 7th harmony 15:33 – TG2, T1 in bass, recalling development section, now in C# min. Moves into RH, with hushed and anticipatory LH accompaniment 15:48 – CADENZA, with quasi-recitative at 16:06 16:37 – TG2, T3 (Cadential Theme), followed by closing flourish
