Beethoven: Sonata # 14 «Moonlight» op. 27 ° 2

Tonality

Less sustained. The Central Alleget is in major.

Instruments

• Piano

From the atril

The nickname of «Moonlight» It is not from Beethoven: it was given years after his death by critic Ludwig Rellstab, who compared the first movement with the moonlight over Lake Lucerne. Beethoven titled it «Sonata quasi una fantasia» and dedicated her to her young student, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, of whom she was in love.

The revolutionary is the order of the movements: instead of starting with a parallel, the sonata opens with a sustained adagio, in a minor sustained, of continuous three-ways and a slow and somber melody, which Beethoven asks to play with the pedal raised throughout the movement, creating an evening resonance. There's a brief next door, which Liszt called. «a flower between two abyss», and a final agitated, tempestuous and virtuous presto, which demands great resistance. For the pianist, the first movement is deceptively simple: the difficult thing is the balance between the melody and the accompaniment and the use of the pedal.

What to hear

• The three-ways and the resonance of the adagio.
• The Alenretto, «a flower between two abyss».
• The final agitated presto.