“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.

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