Moonlight sonata

[BoliverAllmon]

i went to a recital yesterday and a man played the first movement to the sonata. I thought he did wonderfully, but a friend of mine later pointed out that he didn't arpeggiate certain octaves. I didn't know there was some, so he showed me the sheet music he had. I had played the piece somewhat before and never remember these arpeggiated octaves. I even listened to a recording I have and those notes are just played as an octave. The question I have is this, does my friend have an editorial mark there, or is there an old manuscript that has them rolled. the octaves occur in the R.H. beginning second page when the bass plays octave quarter notes. I don't recall the exact notes, but that is where it is.

boliverallmon

[eddie92099]

I would be very skeptical with some editions. In my Mozart Sonata book (G.Schirmer), I found one place where the editor has rewritten a Mozart chord in order to avoid parallel fifths!
Ed

[NetherMagic]

nope boliver dun see any appregiated octaves in my edition.  I guess your friend has a bad edition.  I've got experiences with these, I remember downloading a Busoni edition (btw who is Busoni newayz? ) of La Campanella and I was soooo pissed when I found out that it was like totally off from the original (Liszt) 's version, and it doesn't sound as good as well.

[eddie92099]

There is a very simple explanation for your problem with La Campanella. Ferrucio Busoni was one of the greatest pianists of the turn of the century. He was also a composer. He was, however, not an editor. As well as writing his own music (including a magnificent 70 minute plus Piano Concerto), he decided to rewrite some piano music (he rewrote many passages in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition stating that "Mussorgsky doesn't know how to create the effects that he wants"). He is very well known for his Bach Chaconne transcriptions (the Bach-Busoni Chaconnes) and also his Liszt transcriptions (notably the Mephisto Walz but also his arrangements of the 6 Paganini Etudes). La Campanella was too easy for Busoni, and therefore he rewrote it to fit his vision of the piece, hence it sounds nothing like the original! Can I ask where you downloaded it from though? Thanks!
Ed

[shas]

I'v played the moonlight and listend to it on severall different recordings and have never come acrosse any arpedgiated octives. However if your uncertan about any piece having been edited get the"Wiener Urtext Edition" which except in a few cases like Mozarts fantasy in D min which was unfinished ,isn't eddited at all. Personnly I think thats the way it should be, after all the original composer was the gueinius and not one of todays music edditors.

[BoliverAllmon]

Ok, I went to my teacher today and we looked at her edition of moonlight sonata. What we figured out is this. It isn't arpeggiated octaves like I thought, but nineths. So, what it appears is the editor put the marking there because either he couldn't reach the nineth or he figured the average person couldn't do it. Other than that the piece seems all in order.

boliverallmon

[allchopin]

I think i have also heard of other cases of this- In the version of Fantasie-Impromptu mp3 i have, the pianist plays a different variation (i believe its called the autograph version) than the one in my schirmer book.  I like the autograph one better though!

[NetherMagic]

Thank you for your explanation with the Busoni dilemma I was having.  Right now I actually have the score of La Campanella, in which the Liszt version is placed directly on top of the Busoni version!  

Newayz, sorry the site with the Busoni version of La Campanella is gone, and I can't contact the author of the website (it was some geocities site apparently).