Czerny says ‘[I]n this forte, the shifting pedal is also relinquished, which otherwise
Beethoven was accustomed to employ throughout the whole piece.’ The ‘shifting pedal’
is the ‘una corda’ pedal as is implicit in the matter which Czerny appends in round
brackets. Czerny seems also to be describing times when Beethoven played the first
movement of his ‘Moonlight’ Sonata on a piano with pedals, as distinct from knee levers.
Rowland quotes Czerny’s comment, in relation to the slow movement of Beethoven
Piano Concerto no. 3 in C minor opus 37:
‘ “Beethoven (who publicly played this Concerto in 1803) continued the pedal during the
entire theme, which on the weak-sounding pianofortes of that day, did very well,
especially when the shifting pedal [una corda] was also employed. But now, as the
instruments have acquired a much greater body of tone, we should advise the damper
pedal to be employed anew, at each important change of harmony.” ’
Czerny seems to be describing Beethoven’s performance of the concerto on a piano with
pedals, as distinct from knee levers, in which case, pianos with pedals were becoming
available in Vienna to Beethoven by 1803.
Rosen’s view 1995, 2001
Charles Rosen in ‘The Romantic Generation’ (Harvard University Press, 1995) stated at
page 20:
‘In an early work like the Moonlight Sonata, he can also require the pedal as a form of
orchestration. Playing the first movement of the Moonlight as Beethoven directed, very
delicately (delicatissimamente) with full pedal throughout (senza sordini) (“without
dampers”) on an early nineteenth-century instrument with little sustaining power,
produces a lovely sonority difficult to reproduce on a modern keyboard.’
Rosen, in his ‘Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion (Yale University Press,
New Haven, 2001), at page 108, repeats his view and adds some advice on modification
of the unchanged pedal on the modern piano:
‘The first movement of the “Moonlight Sonata” is ... a unique essay in tone colour: here
he wanted the entire piece to be played with pedal, to be played, in fact, delicately and
pianissimo without ever changing the pedal, that is, without lowering the dampers onto
the strings. Even on his piano this made for a slight blurring, a wonderful atmospheric
sonority which can, in fact, be reproduced on the modern piano, but only by exercising
great care, with half changes and delayed changes of pedal.’
Critique of Rosen’s view
Rosen does not advance any arguments but, in effect, supports Newman’s view and
would presumably rely on the same kinds of arguments. His only real discussion is of the
modifications he believes to be appropriate to implement the unchanged pedal on the
modern piano. My comments on Newman’s views, therefore, apply to Rosen’s views.
Taub’s view 2002