DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT

Dangerous? Moonlight??

Yea. Sometimes it is. Especially when musically speaking. I'll explain later.

It's way after midnight, unusually chilly. In fact, I'm drinking hot tea and was forced to put an extra blanket on the bed. 

Despite the unseasonably cool weather, mockingbirds are making a racket in some nearby trees tonight. I occasionally go out on the back porch and whistle to them. They immediately whistle back - and often imitate the sounds that I make. It's highly entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining.....
that's my smooth transition to another subject

I'm still in the (tedious) process of transferring my old piano recordings to 3mp files. Tonight I found a recording that I really like (for a rare change).

It's my performance of the C# minor piano sonata, op.27 no.2, by Beethoven - - popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata.
Beethoven never called it the Moonlight.
His title was Sonata quasi una fantasia.

The sonata was dubbed "Moonlight" because of the slow, beautifully haunting first movement.

I recorded the entire sonata, but it's well over fifteen minutes long - so I'm only the posting the final (third) movement - which is a fiery presto agitato. It's extremely difficult and (in retrospect) I like my performance and am amazed at my virtuosity.

Beethoven wrote this sonata in 1801 and - pianistically speaking - he was way ahead of his time.

I first performed this sonata publicly in Riverside, California when I was twenty years old. 
This particular recording was made about a decade later when I was thirty. 

It is kind of dangerous to play the third movement of the Moonlight Sonata.

As I was recording this my only goal was not to make a mistake. One false move and you're dead.