Beethoven arr. Martelli – Moonlight Sonata, Movements 1 and 2 (String Quartet) – Digital Download

The first movement of this sonata is one of Beethoven’s most loved pieces, with the nocturnal romantic mood it encapsulates being perfectly captured in this arrangement. The third movement has been published separately. The Pavão Quartet recorded the first movement on the CD Dreaming, released in 2008 on Discrete Recordings DISC0801 and re-released in 2010 on Discadia Records DISCA001. Included on the same CD are four more of Martelli’s Grieg, Elgar, Debussy and Dvořák arrangements also published by Broadbent & Dunn.

Review: “Beethoven’s celebrated piano solo is now available in an arrangement for string quartet. This well-known piece was first published in 1801, supposedly dedicated to his student, 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, with whom Beethoven was in love. Though the official title is Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor – Quasi una fantasia it is more popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata, originating from an 1832 description of the first movement by music critic Ludwig Rellstab, comparing it to moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne in Central Switzerland. For the intermediate string quartet.” – News Notes May 2008

Biography

Martelli, Carlo

Carlo Martelli was born on the 12th December 1935 in London to an Italian father and an English mother. By the age of eleven Carlo had developed a passion for the symphony orchestra. Just before his twelfth birthday he started taking regular violin lessons and very soon began writing elaborate orchestral scores achieving a mastery in this field by the age of sixteen, by which time he had obtained a County Scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music in London, studying composition and viola. By the time he was 21 he had written a string quartet and had already had a great deal of success with several large scale serious symphonic compositions, notably his Second Symphony, which had many performances and broadcasts by several major orchestras in the few years after its completion. In the 1960's he turned to film music to make a living, and also worked steadily as a freelance viola player. His arrangements for string quartet, trio and other combinations number well over 250 and are played by hundreds of groups all over the world.