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Review Summary: Serendipity, with a snag Piano Sonata No. 14 in C♯ minor, Op. 27, No. 2 (commonly known as ‘Moonlight Sonata’) is praised universally as one of the greatest pieces of music ever composed in known history. It’s not hard to see why, given the immense talent very clearly laden out over the sublime key work. However, nostalgia, reputation, and pressure often allow for minor, or even glaring faults to be overlooked. Moonlight Sonata is a perfectly composed masterpiece with one debilitating flaw: the second track, “Allegretto.”
As Moonlight Sonata is meant to be listened to as a whole, we have to recognize what makes each of these now unforgettable compositions what they are. The opener “Adagio Sostenuto” sets the tone with its hauntingly slow progression, and beautifully mesmerizing polyrhythms that makes arguably one of the best openers for a classical composition in known history. “Presto Agitato” still dazzles with its complexity, sheer speed, and scales mastery that all blends together for a stupendous and intense climax. You’ve heard these descriptions a million times before, and no doubt you’ve probably heard far better descriptions of these masterpieces by writers far greater than myself. It’s the filler in the middle that segments the two that prevents me from being able to honestly give this classical piece of compositional work a perfect score.
“Allegretto” is the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of preserving the natural flow of the Sonata. The awkward key change from “Adagio Sostenuto” to “Allegretto” instantly breaks immersion as you’re shoved into an upbeat motif with no warning whatsoever. It’s atmosphere breaking repetition to an extreme, as the entire two minutes serve little variety, flair, or mood up to not only the listener, but modern pianists who wish to undergo the tried and true accomplishment of successfully playing the entire Sonata. “Adagio Sostenuto” and “Presto Agitato” actually flow together far better without the second track in the middle, and could have been combined into one perfect composition. While the lack of a middle respite would make it a little more daunting, it still would be an overall more engrossing piece.
Moonlight Sonata will always be a classic, and one of the most well-known pieces of music to exist in this world. While the first and third arrangements will forever be some of the most beautifully game-changing pieces in existence, the second track should have been left to slip away in the sands of time.
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Album Rating: 4.0
Been wanting to do a small write-up about this for a while, and this didn't have a review so...
Critique always welcome!
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haha this is so funny
Drifter is literally talking about how he finds that liking classical music is pretentious on skype right now and he just used your rating as an example haha
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Expoed
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Wow lol, why do you think enjoying classical music is pretentious Drifter?
Anyways, let me know what you guys think of the review!
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And Drifter couldn't be more wrong.
Nice review Snide
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"liking classical music is pretentious" wtf Drifter.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah Drifter I'm really curious as to why you think an entire genre of music being listened to classifies someone as pretentious.
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Ah, yes, my favorite Beethoven piece. The one with no title.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
The title for this broken literally right after I posted the review.
I already posted in the meds thread for one of the mods to fix it so it should be fixed soon.
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Classical music rules, Beethoven rules, this rules
Rating's too low
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Do you honestly think that the second track is even remotely good?
This would have been a 5/5 if the second track was cut from this.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I think Beethoven has more impressive pieces than the Adagio movement of Moonlight, and Chopin and Debussy did this style better. Still a good classic, but dear me is it overplayed. Try making a romantic Pandora station, you'll get different performances of this song like 10% of the time lol
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Second movement, not second track. And while I agree that it's the weakest of the three I still think it's great.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Why did this not have a title?
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It did before. I think it broke when Snide posted the review for some reason
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second track
there is only one recording of this by ludwig van himself
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lmao
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@Sandwich: It did have a title but it broke when I posted the review, I already reported it so it'll be fixed soon.
@Ocean: I personally don't see how something that repetitive and immersion breaking could be great, I actually deleted the second movement and only listen to the first and third movements.
@Friday: Movement one especially is overplayed, but I honestly don't mind it simply because it's such a beautiful piece.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Oh hey the title's fixed.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Snide, have you listened to many other piano sonatas/symphonies/multi-movement classical instrumental works in general? Cause it seems to me that you're taking the second movement out of context.
It's a minuet and trio, which was basically a staple movement in multi-movement instrumental works of the time. You couldn't write a piano sonata without writing one; it was simply the convention. However, it's nifty because he also flips certain conventions on their heads. For example, starting with the slow movement was pretty rare for music of the period, as well as having the minuet and trio being in a contrasting key from the other movements. Normally, the minuet is in the same key as the rest of the sonata, acting as a kind of minor add-on to the piece, but here it actually serves as a contrasting movement, giving it a much more important role than minuets normally had.
I can explain to you all kinds of reasons why I enjoy the second movement, but I think the best way for you to appreciate it is just to immerse yourself more in the genre of the piano sonata. For starters, listen to the rest of them by this guy - he wrote 32 of them, and they're all great. You'll probably understand where that movement's coming from when you see it in the context of his other sonatas.
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