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Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 ‘Moonlight Sonata’ | Daniel Barenboim

DW Classical Music
Jan 22, 2025
Classical
Piano
YouTube

The 'Moonlight Sonata' by Beethoven

Enigmatic and passionate, the 'Moonlight Sonata' is one of Beethoven's most famous compositions for the piano. Here, the Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 is interpreted by Daniel Barenboim in the Palais Kinsky in Vienna.

This Beethoven cycle is considered a reference rendition and part of Barenboim’s complete recording of all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas from the years 1983 and 1984.

  • I. Adagio sostenuto (00:00)
  • II. Allegretto (06:45)
  • III. Presto agitato (09:00)

Ludwig van Beethoven composed Piano Sonata No. 14 in 1801, when he complained increasingly of his worsening hearing, but was not personally unhappy.

The “enchanting” girl was Countess Julie Guicciardi (1782–1856), to whom the “Moonlight Sonata” Op. 27, No. 2 is dedicated. Beethoven met her in 1800 and gave her piano lessons. But his dream was shattered in 1803 at the latest, when Julie married composer Wenzel Robert Graf von Gallenberg.

Beethoven gave his work the title “Sonata quasi una fantasia” (Sonata almost a fantasy). “Fantasia” refers to a piece of music that has no fixed form and gives the impression of spontaneity. And the “Moonlight Sonata” is indeed surprising: In contrast to the classical sonata, it does not begin with a fast movement, but in a leisurely tempo (Adagio sostenuto), which lends the work drama and grandeur.

  • The second movement (Allegretto) is rather sedate and conventional. Franz Liszt compared the Allegretto to a “flower between two abysses”.
  • The third and final movement (Presto agitato) leads back into these abysses. It is full of emotion.

With its melancholy mood, the “Moonlight Sonata” is considered a precursor to musical Romanticism. The picturesque title, however, is not from Beethoven. Long after the composer had died, music critic Ludwig Rellstab heard the famous first movement and had a clear image in his mind’s eye: a night-time boat trip on Lake Lucerne.

One expert who has examined Beethoven’s piano sonatas since his childhood is famed pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim (b. 1942). Barenboim was considered a prodigy. As a young man, he studied in Rome under the instruction of pianist and music teacher Carlo Zecci.

  • At the age of 15, he made his first recordings of a few of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, including the “Pathétique”.
  • He was already playing with the New York Philharmonic at that young age.

Five years later, Barenboim conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in New York. From that point on, the doors of the greatest stages in the world stood open to him. From 1992 to 2023, the Argentinian-Israeli pianist played the final cycle to mark the occasion of the composer’s 250th birthday (2020) during the COVID-19 pandemic for the Deutsche Grammophon classical music label.

No matter how often you play them, there are always new, personal perspectives to discover,” he stated at the time.

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