Sonatas Nos. 13–14, Op. 27, Nos. 1–2

Leif Ove Andsnes

on Op. 27, No 1, “Quasi una fantasia”

Audio Excerpt 1

Excerpt from Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2, "Moonlight" (I. Adagio sostenuto)

Audio Excerpt 2

Excerpt from Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2, "Moonlight" (III. Presto agitato)

Audio excerpted from Peter Serkin / Beethoven Sonatas / RCA Red Seal

“The name ‘Moonlight’ is nonsense,” pianist András Schiff has said about Beethoven’s Sonata in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2. Though the name has become indelibly linked with the sonata, it was actually coined after Beethoven’s death by the poet Ludwig Rellstab, who was reminded of the sonata’s first movement while sitting in a boat on Lake Lucerne one night, contemplating the play of moonlight on water. The rest is music history.

Easily one of Beethoven’s most famous works in any genre, the sonata is also one of his most innovative. The description “quasi una fantasia,” which Beethoven added to the title, advertises the work as a departure from strict large-scale form. Rather than beginning with a fast movement, the work begins with an Adagio ( 1). Musically, the first movement closely resembles the music from the scene in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni in which Giovanni murders the Commendatore. Beethoven admired the music from this scene and had even copied the score by hand.

The final movement ( 2) is hardly the charming Allegro that might have concluded an earlier Classical sonata by Haydn or Mozart. Ominously quiet arpeggios precede crashing chords at a furiously fast tempo; while the first two movements make the sonata seem accessible to amateurs, the last makes clear the necessity of virtuosic technique.

Though not as famous as its counterpart, the Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1, is also modified with the phrase “quasi una fantasia,” and the many flourishes and gestures call to mind the improvisational style of a traditional fantasy. Like the “Moonlight” Sonata, Op. 27, No. 1 was written in 1801, a year of growing difficulty for Beethoven. He had already stopped attending social functions due to his hearing loss, and, though he still hoped for a cure, he felt increasing despair. He wrote to a friend, “If I had any other profession it would be easier, but in my profession it is a terrible handicap. As for my enemies, of whom I have a fair number, what would they say?”