Friday May 05, 2023
Moonlight Sonata
The gorgeous and strange first movement of Beethoven's piano sonata Op. 27 No. 2 is one of the most popular piano pieces of all time, but there are many secrets that lie below its placid surface. We discuss some of the ways that the piece evokes moonlight and nocturnal landscapes.
References
The recording we used was played by Malcolm Bilson from "The Complete Piano Sonatas Played on Historical Instruments"
Sarah Waltz, "In Defense of Moonlight"
Tom Beghin, "Beethoven's Mondschein Sonata"
Comments (3)
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Hey Rebecca, thanks for the comment! I haven’t read those books but I’m intrigued now!
Monday Sep 09, 2024
Ot highlights Lucia’s virtues, flaws and pretensions. There’s a lovely description in one of the books of her ‘fingers dripping with slow triplets’.
Saturday May 18, 2024
Nothing to do with space but The Moonlight Sonata always makes me think of Lucia, the central character in the Mapp and Lucia books written in the twenties and thirties by EF Benson. Lucia is a fascinating character but she has multiple flaws. She plays the piano, though not very well, and her signature piece is the first movement of The Moonlight Sonata (she never admits it but she can’t play the rest). This is a motif that comes up with variations in all six books
Saturday May 18, 2024
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