just as Chopin did later in his mazurkas, said in the 1830’s when the piano tone had been
considerably increased, that in the first movement of this sonata, “the pedal indicated is to
be used again with each new bass note”. Moreover, Beethoven marked this movement
simply as adagio. Czerny corrects the composer and writes: “Since the measure is alla
breve, the whole piece must be played in a moderate andante tempo.” What a distance
there is between adagio and andante!’
Critique of Schindler’s view
Schindler’s view is strong evidence for the unchanged pedal. He did, however, write his
comments nearly sixty years after Beethoven published his ‘Moonlight’ Sonata and his
book has been shown to be unreliable in a number of details.
Chopin’s view 1840s
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) never met Beethoven, who died three years before Chopin
arrived in Vienna for a short stay in 1830. Chopin, however, was a friend of Carl Czerny
(1791-1857) and was also a friend of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) at least during the 1830s.
Chopin admired and often played the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata. There are no harmonic
blurring effects in Chopin’s own piano music and it seems that he was not particularly
attracted to these kinds of effects. If he had used unchanged pedal in the first movement
it may be argued that surely some reference to it would have come down to us in the
various memoirs of Chopin’s playing and teaching.
Critique of Chopin’s view
It may be argued that Chopin supported the traditional pedalling. If he did, we do not
know on what basis.
Liszt’s view 1880s
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) studied with Carl Czerny and would have studied the
‘Moonlight’ Sonata with Czerny as it was always Beethoven’s most popular sonata. The
first movement was a favourite of Liszt’s and, at least in his later years, he did not allow
anyone to play it in his presence.
Liszt pupil Alexander Siloti heard Liszt perform it privately in 1885 at the Hofgärtnerei,
Weimar and left a glowing account in his memoirs. If Liszt had used the unchanged
pedalling, or anything like it, it may be argued that surely Siloti would have made some
comment as to this, yet nothing has come down to us from Siloti as to this.
The Edison wax cylinder recording process was in existence in the 188 0s but it seems
that Liszt was never asked to record his piano playing. Apart from this he did not survive
into the recording age.
Critique of Liszt’s view