Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonatas

Here are Beethoven's two most widely known slow movements — the Adagio Cantabile from the Sonata "Pathétique," op. 13, and the Adagio Sostenuto from the "Moonlight" Sonata, op. 27 no. 2.

For as often as they're played, these movements are nice to return to from time to time because they're wonderful exercises in contrapuntal voicing (more on that later) and, surely no less important, because the melodies are unforgettable.

By "voicing," musicians usually mean emphasizing one note (voice) over the others. Often that happens to be the top voice — the highest note — as if a vocalist were singing over accompaniment. Cantabile means "singing," so there you go.

Those of you who are familiar with the sonatas may raise an eyebrow at a few liberties I've taken in my interpretations. Thankfully, most of you aren't, so you won't notice. Suffice it to say that the great pianist Josef Hofmann made a convincing case for indulging little artistic conceptions that came to him during that particular performance, conflicts with the composers' explicit instructions notwithstanding. His view was pretty much, as long as it isn't capricious and ridiculous, knock yourself out. So, not one to ignore anyone named Hoffmann, I did.

I studied the Pathétique sonata in high school, and haven't formally studied the Moonlight. In any case, I hope to have the other movements of each recorded soon. It's really strange to post individual movements of sonatas; I only did it here because these are so famous. Go.

Finally, at the beginning of each track you will hear a faint resonance from a high note. The software cuts out the first few milliseconds of the signal it receives from the piano. I don't know why. To get around it, I play a high note, which starts the recording process; then I wait for the note to die and start playing. Crucially, I then edit out the annoying, irrelevant note at the beginning. Laziness prevents this last step from being taken in these cases. Try to deal.


Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 ("Pathétique")
II. Adagio cantabile
mp3 | score

Sonata quasi una fantasia* No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ("Moonlight")
I. Adagio sostenuto
mp3 | score


* The subtitle quasi una fantasia was, unlike the moniker "Moonlight," actually added by the composer. It refers to the unconventional structure of the sonata — the slow movement is placed first. Usually the first movement is a quick tempo, the second movement is slow, and the third quicker than the first (with a minuet or scherzo sometimes shoehorned in between the first and second or second and third movements). Fantasia is a catch-all for anything that doesn't fit into a common mold. Needless to say, it explains my middle name.