Moonlight Sonata Recordings

[kelly_kelly]

Whose recording is your favorite and why?

[thalbergmad]

Radu Lupu.

Don't know why, I just like it.

Perhaps it was the first one that I listened to and it stuck in my mind.

Thal

[jre58591]

even though i despise this sonata, id have to say that its a tie between richard goode and brendel's philips recording.

[pianiststrongbad]

I have Kempff's recording, I have always liked the way he played it.  Though I don't have much else to compare it to.

[alejo_90]

Gilels, Kempff and Rubinstein. Don't know why...   

[ivoryplayer_amf]

even though i despise this sonata, id have to say that its a tie between richard goode and brendel's philips recording.

Why do you despise it?

[jre58591]

Why do you despise it?

besides the fact that its so effing overplayed, i dont really like the piece. my hatred for it intensified when i learn it, which is the case for many pieces i learn that i dont like. dont get me wrong, its a great piece of composition, but i just cant listen to it. much like me and baroque. i respect teh work, but i just cant listen to it.

[alejo_90]

Why does people always take out points from a piece because it is overplayed? It makes no sense to me. Then we all should hate Beethoven' 5th and 9th, Bach's Toccata and Fuge, Mozart's Rondo alla Turca, Chopin's Heroic Polonaise, and a lot of other pieces that are very overplayed.

Best
Alex

[zheer]

 Horowitz plays this sonata very well.

[mike_lang]

Moravec - also on the disc are the 32 variations, Op. 90, Op. 81a "Les Adieux", and Pathetique, I believe.

Best,
ML

[da jake]

1. Schnabel
2. Hofmann
3. Horowitz

[bella musica]

Radu Lupu.

Don't know why, I just like it.

Perhaps it was the first one that I listened to and it stuck in my mind.

Thal

I really like Radu Lupu's recording of the Schubert Impromptus as well.  He has incredibly beautiful legato and phrasing...

[anschlag]

As a favourite I might well pick Lupu or Gilels.

But for the most remarkable recording I have ever heard of this piece I would pick Gulda's recording for Decca from the 50s. His first movement is astonishing: he plays it with immense control, very slowly, and with the pedal down all the way through ('senza sordini'). The first time I heard this I was both shocked and mesmerised by the effect.

[freakofnature]

@anschlag: You mean he doesn't change pedal at the chord changes??? Doesn't sound this like a total mess?

[anschlag]

Strangely it does not sound too much of a mess, though there are some very strange effects. It sounds extremely ghostly.

This is a literal interpretation of Beethoven's instructions, which indicate that the piece should be played 'senza sordini' - so without dampeners.

Gulda did revise his view in subsequent years and in his famous amadeo reading from the 60s he sounds more conventional.

[steve jones]

I like Kissin playing this one. He has some pace in that last movement!

SJ

[phil13]

Rudolf Serkin.

Phil

[da jake]

PS: Gould for the 3rd movement.