Beethoven Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor - "Moonlight" - 3rd Movement - Presto Agitato

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Ahhh...the 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata. What a piece.

I remember first hearing this when I was a kid at my teacher’s recitals. There was this one guy who was better than me (still is I presume) who was working on this at the time so he performed it quite often. When I got through middle school and into high school, it wasn’t the technical arpeggios or runs that stuck in my mind; rather, it was always the lyrical parts like at 0:38.

I never got the chance to learn this piece in high school. I only ever messed around the parts that were more expressive like at 0:38, but I never put time in to actually play it.

That changed this spring. Getting back into playing, I wanted to just play whatever I wanted to play, so I finally decided to pick this piece up for real. And do I love me a Beethoven Sonata.

I’ve played four-ish Beethoven Sonatas in my career, and they were all interestingly instrumental in my growth. The first one (I’m too lazy to look up the opuses), Sonata in E major, was the first piece that I learned to pedal. Sonata No. 1 in F minor was one that I learned to express like this sort of restrained expectation and anger in the 4th movement. Sonata No. 3 in C major I performed all the way through in the programs of two recitals that I’ve played. And I played the first movement of Sonata in A flat major in my senior recital.

The Moonlight Sonata felt like a culmination of techniques in a sense from each of these other Sonatas. The touches, the style, the technique, the pedaling, everything just felt so...Beethoven.

Boris Giltberg said in an interview something to the effect of: we all think of Beethoven as this dark, brooding guy, but in playing his sonatas, you realize that he’s not. He’s just a guy who lives a lot of life and his music rings of that life.

I think Beethoven wrote the whole Sonata for one of his students, and based on the Wiki article, it seems like yet another sort of unrequited love situation for Beethoven. The name “Moonlight” wasn’t attached to the piece until after his death.

Personally, in playing this piece, I don’t feel like the moniker really fits. Maybe the first movement, but even then, I think the piece only evokes the feeling of watching shimmering moonlight over a lake when it is played with a very light, dreamy touch. Then the first movement almost becomes illusionary, sweeping away reality in the undulation of soft waves breaking on a lake bed, illuminated by the clear beams of a full moon in a scene where reality and dreams almost, but not quite, collide.

But this touch may not have been what Beethoven would have played with because it developed after his time, further into the romantic era (at least based on how I was taught, which could be wrong since I’m not a pro). Also, given that Beethoven’s pedal on his piano was not as robust, it’s unlikely that the same dream-like quality would have been achieved.

More likely he would have played this with a normal touch, and the piece would have felt more like a dirge than a dream. And with that, I think the context for the third movement makes a lot more sense.

There’s nothing moonlight-like in the third movement (like since when did moonlight get so aggressive?). Daniel Barenboim in a YouTube video on the sonata describes the feeling as “martial”, and personally, I almost agree. There is an urgency, a blazing fire that is almost a tempest, behind this movement. It is an anger borne of deep longing, a yearning for what cannot happen and what will not happen, but it is so beautiful that you cannot help but want it, and hate every second of wanting it because of its impossibility.

The anger starts off barely veiled and threatens to break out, and it does so with the chords played with the sforzando. And then the parts like at 0:38, we get to an angry, bitter lament. Lamenting what cannot be. That’s a big mood.

And then we ask how do we deal with feeling like this at 1:13, and we find the answer to be unsatisfying, leaving us with a bitter burden at 1:36. And then the cycle continues.

Gosh I love this piece. And I felt like it told some of my story when I was learning it, and it really resonated in an interesting way.

And of course, take what I say with a grain of salt because I think if you want to interpret the piece to be moonlight, then go ahead.

I also attempt playing the piece at 180 bpm at the end for fun. I think Valentina Lisitsa recorded this piece somewhat recently at an absolutely nutty tempo.

I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on this insanely popular and beautiful piece. And I really hope that I did it justice in my performance.

Until next time!

- WattKeys

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