The sound of "Moonlight" that Beethoven sought

“Sonata quasi una fantasia” (Fantasy-like Sonata)¹, commonly known as "Moonlight Sonata" (op.27, No.2) ²Of all Beethoven's sonatas, this is probably the most frequently performed.

At the beginning of the piece, Beethoven included two performance instructions that define the mood of the piece.Si deve sonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordini (The whole piece has to sound extremely delicate, with no dampening."³And as if to reinforce that, the following is written in the paragraph:sempre pianissimo e senza sordini(Pianissimo throughout, no damper)⁴.

To understand these instructions, one must understand the structure of the piano as envisioned by Beethoven.

First, the simple explanation:sempre pianissimo e senza sordiniLet me explain what "pianissimo throughout, with no damper" means.

Beethoven's Anton Walter⁵The pianoforte was equipped with a mute. Even today, many upright pianos have a mechanism for placing a piece of felt cloth between the hammer and the strings. It's that one. The hammers of pianos at that time were made of leather, and produced a relatively hard sound, but by using this "mute," it was possible to produce the soft sound that felt produces. Beethoven's "sempre pianissimo e senza sordini(pianissimo throughout, without damper)" seems to be an instruction to use this mute.

next,"Si deve sonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordini (The whole piece has to sound extremely delicate with no dampening."

At the time this piece was written, the damper on the piano was operated by pulling a lever with one hand to raise the damper (Figure 2).⁶Then, you start to raise the damper with your knees (Figure 3).⁷It was a transitional period.

Beethoven's A. Walter pianoforte had such a "knee pedal," but here Beethoven is using an "old-fashioned" pianoforte.⁸As in, they want the dampers to stay up.

Another name for this "hand stop" is the "Celestial Stop," which C.P. Bach wrote in 1762: "If the lingering reverberation can be well managed, it produces very pleasing results in the making of fantastic improvisations." ⁹. Beethoven was seeking this exact effect. This can be seen from the fact that Beethoven's secretary Anton Schindler wrote in the 1850s when he published a revised version of Beethoven's biography that "Today's pianos have too long a resonance, so Beethoven's instructions are not appropriate." This naturally also applies to modern pianos such as Steinway, which make the sound muddy and require changing the pedal for each chord. This emphasizes the bass melody, which can be somewhat out of sync with Beethoven's intended music.

This is what happens when you play this piece on A. Walter's piano with the dampers up, just as Beethoven instructed.

What a beautiful sound, like floating in the mist. I would love to hear the whole piece performed by Tom Beghin, who introduced this piece, but it doesn't seem to be available on YouTube. Too bad.

How to play on a modern piano

Taking all this into consideration, how should this piece be played on a modern piano?

I think you will probably play it using half pedal. According to Andras Schiff, about 1/3 is good.¹⁰And there is actually a great performance like that. Friedrich Gulda's December 1957 Decca recording.¹¹This is the complete recording of the piece, which was made at the tender age of 27 at Kingsway Hall in London. Please listen to it.

1. The exact title is "Sonata quasi una fantasia for il Clavicembalo o Piano Forte" (Fantasy-like sonata for keyboard harpsichord or piano forte).
2. First edition — http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/3/33/IMSLP51038-PMLP01458-Op.27-2.pdf
3. The whole piece must sound most delicate and without damper
4. Simply piano and without dumper
5. He was the top piano maker in Vienna at the time. He introduced many new ideas, such as the knee lever, heavier hammers, a mechanism to prevent the hammer from bouncing back when the key is released, and the introduction of three strings in the higher range, and produced about 1000 pianos.
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJuNgjb2HcY
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJuNgjb2HcY
8. It is said that the A. Walter piano that Mozart used also had hand stops. The extant piano was later modified by A. Walter to include knee pedals.
9. The introduction of this mechanism is thought to have begun with the attempt to put two instruments into a single housing: the "Pianoforte" with the damper down, and the "Pantaleon" - a zither-type instrument with a resonating box, which produces sound by striking the strings with a mallet - called the "Pantaleon" (a harpsichord with a keyboard). At the time, the term "harpsichord" meant this type of instrument, and the "Klavicembalo" (a harpsichord with keyboard), which is also in the title of the piece, was added to this instrument. (Source) Tom Beghin: Beethoven's "Mondschein" Sonata, Opus 27 No. 2 and the Undamped Registerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJuNgjb2HcY> and the author
10. https://youtu.be/H6u9Ocp039Y?si=tt6vqTNuc025U40H&t=450
11. This is the version recommended by Hidekazu Yoshida. I also recommend it.