“Sonata quasi una fantasia” was the title given to it by Beethoven, and yet the world of music knows it as the “Moonlight Sonata” – an epithet that was already around during the composer’s lifetime. “The lake rests quiet under the light of the moon at twilight; the wave thuds against the dark bank”, wrote Ludwig Rellstab on the 1st movement in 1823. “It is as if we catch sight of a colossal grave in the middle of a lonely plain, palely lit by the sickle moon”, was what Wilhelm von Lenz wrote. Beethoven might have been influenced by the sound of the Aeolian harp, as Murray Perahia and Norbert Gertsch explain in the introductory texts to this edition, referring to the latest research. Perahia also provided the fingerings.
G. Henle Publishers stands for Urtext sheet music of the highest quality. The Urtext editions not only provide the undistorted and authoritative musical text but are also aesthetically pleasing, optimised for practical use and extremely durable. And then there is the strong, distinctive blue profile: (almost) all of the Urtext editions are bound in the characteristic blue cardboard.
Musicians trust Henle's blue Urtext editions because they:
- provide an undistorted, reliable and authoritative musical text
- offer superb, aesthetically appealing music engraving
- are optimised for practical use (page turns, fingerings)
- are of high quality and durable (cover, paper, binding)
- contain a short preface that introduces the work (particularly useful for AMEB exams) in German, English and French, as well as explanatory footnotes for particularly interesting passages in the score
- contain a description of the sources, an evaluation of the sources, readings and a documentation of the corrections made (= "Critical Report") in German and English, and often also in French
