RE: [F_minor] Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

["Houpt, Fred" <fred.houpt@rbc.com>]

Hi there.  I was aware of the late application of a name to the B piece.
I had not heard of Berlioz's title or suggestion for what this piece is.
Very interesting, I had not considered the piece a lament, and I've
played it all my life.  That would really turn my mind around about what
is going on.  However, if my reactions to the Moonlight have been
strongly fashioned by the many romantic minded pianists (some you've
mentioned, others I wrote about) then that is how I came to this piece.
The quiet, contemplative approach to the 1'st movement always felt to be
the correct approach.  It just seems to be inherent in the music itself.
To play it faster than a slow pace seems to me to disturb the music, but
again that is the way I grew up listening and feeling the music.  

I must admit that it had never occurred to me that this piece referred
to the oncoming deafness.  We certainly get the feeling that Beethoven
did not go gently into that good night.  We hear his rage in the
Appassionato and other sonatas.  

One has to admit that there is something intrinsically deep and
spiritually moving about the Moonlight.  It has been recorded to death
and each new generation of piano hammers goes right for it as well as
the Appassionato and Waldstein.  They are all gems. Finally for now, I
cannot find any good logic in Glenn's approach to the 3'rd mvt.  It is
just too much horsepower and frantic flashing for my tastes.  Way too
fast for me.  Glenn knew how to exaggerate a point and it seems to me
that he put his foot right to the floor and for me it was not the type
of drive by I was looking for.

Cheers,

Fred





-----Original Message-----
From: anniem@interisland.net [mailto:anniem@interisland.net] 
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 3:25 PM
To: Houpt, Fred
Cc: f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
Subject: RE: [F_minor] Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

| I agree that Glenn had such a mastery of his technique that he could 
| play any B piece at any speed.  Which leaves us wondering all the more

| what he is trying to say in this piece?  Glenn had a very finely tuned

| philosophical mind.  He could not have chopped up this piece into such

| distorted speeds without having thought it through. If he is on record

| (pardon the pun here) of having said that the Moonlight was a 
| favorite, then I am all the more confused.  I do not understand him
here.

Hi Fred!

I have read & enjoyed this list for several years, but have not felt the
need to say anything until now.  I hope I am addressing this email
properly.

I don't think we should leave this at
isn't-it-wonderful-how-Beethoven's-music-can be-played-so-many-ways,
although that is certainly true. The name "Moonlight" was given to the
sonata by Ludwig Rellstab, music critic and publisher, some thirty years
after the work was completed, and after Beethoven died. (It evoked in
him the image of moonlight on Lake Lucerne.) There is therefore no
compelling reason to believe this was what was in the composer's mind,
and if this is the emotion you're looking for, I agree you won't find it
in Gould's performance. On the other hand, someone who has spent many
years studying Beethoven's life suggests a better description than
"moonlight" might be "intimations of approaching deafness", and Berlioz
has called it a "lamentation".  Consequently the urgency and anxiety and
lack of inner calm you felt from Gould's performance could be entirely
appropriate.

I love Beethoven. I have over 1000 CDs of his music, including 33
performances of this sonata (at last count there were over 30 works with
20 or more performances in the collection). Usually, when people ask me
what's my favorite this or that, it's what's playing at the time.  For
example, in addition to the performances by Brendel, Kempff, Barenboim,
Arrau, Richter, and Gilels mentioned earlier, there are also good ones
by Schnabel, Serkin, Pollini, Ashkenazy, Annie Fischer, Frank, Kipnis &
Solomon, and room for more. But Gould's Moonlight, with its urgent first
movement and its third movement flash flood of torrential logic, ah,
that's The One for me.

(What I can't figure out is Gould's Hammerklavier - can anyone help with
that?)

Annie Moss Moore

_______________________________________________________________________

This e-mail may be privileged and/or confidential, and the sender does not waive any related rights and obligations.
Any distribution, use or copying of this e-mail or the information it contains by other than an intended recipient is unauthorized.
If you received this e-mail in error, please advise me (by return e-mail or otherwise) immediately.  

Ce courrier électronique est confidentiel et protégé. L'expéditeur ne renonce pas aux droits et obligations qui s'y rapportent.
Toute diffusion, utilisation ou copie de ce message ou des renseignements qu'il contient par une personne autre que le (les) destinataire(s) désigné(s) est interdite.
Si vous recevez ce courrier électronique par erreur, veuillez m'en aviser immédiatement, par retour de courrier électronique ou par un autre moyen.

_______________________________________________
F_minor mailing list
F_minor@email.rutgers.edu
https://email.rutgers.edu/mailman/listinfo/f_minor