The Beethoven Moonlight Sonata

[vovo]

What do you think of the Beethoveen Moonlight Sonata

[thalbergmad]

I have lost the will to listen to it again.

Anything with a name attached to it, i avoid like the plague.

[pianistimo]

i love the moon.  the moon has a certain element of peacefulness and serenity.  i want the moonlight sonata played at my funeral.  i like the circular idea.  i like the waning and waxing.  i like the magnetism.  and, i like the fact that all generations of people have seen the very same moon. 

richter plays the best moonlight because - well, you can hear the pull of the moon in his playing.  ps.  i also happen to love beethoven.  suppose this might be another element of my love for the moonlight sonata.   

[semme]

great piece. its just one of those pieces where you think every note is as it should be.

[mikey6]

I heard this played live and I was thinking "is it a boring piece coz it's it's played so often or is it just not one of his best works? (mind you the pianist wasn't that great but yeh..still haven't made up my mind)

[demented cow]

The Moonlight is IMO nice, but hardly Beethoven at his best, and I find it a pity that the this is the only piano sonata that non-classical listeners know. This popularity seems to be due to factors that have nothing to do with the quality of the music:
a) the 1st movement is so technically easy that lots of near-beginners can play the notes, so that many people know it because their little sister plays it, etc.
b) it has a conventional name. There are some pieces (e.g. the slow movement of op 2/3 or the 2nd movt of op 90) which have at least as much potential for popular appeal, but it would be harder to make them popular because they have no easy-to-remember name. (Vivaldi's Four Seasons are also a good instance of this. Is their popularity vis-a-vis other concertos due to their being better music or is it just due to their having name? And I bet Mozart concerto 21 has also been selling since it acquired the name 'Elvira Madigan', though it's not clearly better than most of the other late concertos).

[fiasco]

The Moonlight (and ignore the spurious name, which definitely wasn't given by Beethoven.  A piece by any other name would sound as sweet, anyway) is popular for a reason.  Many pieces are easy to play, but are not as universally loved.  The strength of the first movement is that it communicates an awful lot for the amount of effort one has to put into it.  Like Einstein's realtivity theories, the beauty lies in its simplicity - it's ability to say so much with so little.  Besides, there's a difference between playing it and writing it.

The second movement doesn't really do much for me.  Second movements rarely do.  I like the 2nds in the Pastorale and the Pathetique, but mostly I find them dull, and would rather skip right to the payoff.  I know this is blasphemy, but so be it.  The 3rd movement of the Moonlight I consider to be one of his greatest Sonata moments.  Up there with the 3rds of the Tempest, Appassionata, Waldstein, and the first Sonata, which I love.  It's also surprisingly difficult to play.  I was learing this while learing Chopin's 1st Ballade, and found the Ballade to be considerably easier.  Maybe it's because there's more room for interpretation in the Ballade, whereas the Moonlight requires you to race through ten pages, not including repeats, at the same tempo with nary a rest.  But when played right, I don't see how anyone can say it isn't Beethoven at his most passionate.

[bearzinthehood]

I like the second movement, it's neat and tidy.

[cfortunato]

It's brilliant.  Modern composers should learn from the old ones that great music can be simple.  If the first movement doesn't put you to sleep it will change you insides.  I love the third movement (not that I can play it), but I don't think I've ever heard it played really well.  The technical demands make it either lose definition and become sloppy; or it becomes TOO defined and sounds like silent movie music.  And it would be great for a car chase, wouldn't it?

[quantum]

This may be overly played, but I still like it verry much.

[steve jones]

I like this piece too. So what if it the most over exposed piece EVER. That is a problem with us, not the music.

To be honest though, you could sack the second movement for me. The first and third are great!