Learn Moonlight Sonata Movement

Turkish pianist-composer Fazil Say set the bar high for himself by aiming to deliver one of the greatest interpretations of Beethoven with this collection. It’s a bold target given the competition, but one thing you can be sure of with him is a big personality and great individuality. He is best in the more classical sonatas; in a work that fizzes with passion, like the “Waldstein”, his character chimes well with Beethoven’s message. Some of his tempi are extreme—his “Moonlight” opening movement is very slow, while the finale is full of dramatic twists and turns—but there’s no denying the force of personality behind his playing. There are many rewards along the way.

Those who still think of Wagner’s Tristan as quintessentially erotic music should definitely reconsider: in the list drawn by The Most Erotic Classical Music of All Time, an album with a provocative cover featuring a woman’s derriere and suspenders, in good company with an obvious Bolero and a punctual isottesque finale and a less-obvious Moonlight Sonata or a Good Friday Spell (all by the German from Leipzig), one finds the Centone di Sonate for violin and guitar by Niccolò Paganini (Genoa 1782 – Nice 1840) and precisely with the opening movement of the Sonata in A minor placed in the opening of the present collection.