Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

[Dr. Strange]

Is this not the most beautiful piece of music, ever?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDNsX4DtzZs

[TZ]

1. !

You are serious! I thought this was going to be a platypus roll..:wow:

[Dr. Strange]

2. Well, sorta serious, but sorta not.

I consider this the Baroque version of a Rickroll. (Posting the second movement, as opposed to the imminently more beautiful first. :P )

[Brickbat]

3. The second movement is great, because it so excellently sets off the first and third.

It couldn't be anything other than what it is. "Une fleur entre deux abîmes," as Liszt said.

[Dr. Strange]

4. It does.

But without those two movements, how do you think it stands on its own? The first and the third parts are incredible stand-along pieces. But without them, the second seems mediocre. (Well, mediocre for Beethoven, let's say.)

[Brickbat]

5. Whenever I hear it by itself, I almost feel like it's a little joke -- like Beethoven's saying, "You

didn't think I could pull something like this off, could you?" It's like a wink. I've always felt rather kindly toward it.

[Dr. Strange]

6. Ha!

Now every time I hear the second movement I'm gonna giggle, thinking of this remark.

[Brickbat]

7. Hee! Enjoy!

I was quite a good pianist back in the day and often felt like composers were talking to me through their work. One of Bach's pieces had a hand shift that was tricky for me and I always felt like Bach put it in there on purpose to keep me on my toes.

[Dr Morbius]

8. Same composer, 9th symphony, 4th movement.

As performed by the NBC orchestra in 1952, conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

This here is from the 1948 recording, almost as good. It's about the final half of the ninth. If this does not move you in some way, see a taxidermist: you're dead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot4Jj_ILjoE

[Dr. Strange]

9. The ninth is good.

But I would rate the fifth and seventh higher.

[Dr Morbius]

10. Really!

Each of Beethoven's symphonies has its own special qualities. Myself, I prefer the sixth to the seventh and the fifth to the sixth, but the reason I hold the ninth higher - as the greatest single piece of music ever written - is the inclusion of the voice. I've heard no other choral symphony anywhere near as arresting. In particular, the way Toscanini conducted Beethoven, the 9th has so much... sheer balls... I find it the most human.

I have the 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 8th, and 9th as conducted by the great one, and nothing grabs me like the ninth. As to the topic, I prefer the Pathetique (op 13) to the Moonlight (op 27), but that's me. So you prefer the middle period! Hmm.

[Brickbat]

11. I, too, prefer the seventh.

Also, the first, because of the story I was told that when it had its debut, people walked out after the opening because of the dominant resolving into the subdominant. RADICAL!