Why you've never really heard the Moonlight Sonata

Check out Slate's fantastic article here. The article describes how Beethoven's famous third movement of the Moonlight Sonata, along with countless other works, was designed for the instruments of the day in an essential way. This viewpoint is pretty common in looking at Baroque music, as you can see in the huge market today for "period" version of Baroque music - played on authentic instruments, with authentic stylistic nuances and often in authentic frilly costumes. However, when you get to Classical period composers and the invention of the pianoforte, we all sort of assume that wham bam, the modern Steinway grand descended from heaven pre-made. However, one of the most obvious differences in the older pianos is that when you hold down the sustain pedal on an older piano (1805 in the article), the notes don't last as long. Beethoven directs the performer to hold down the pedal the entire time, and if you tried this on a modern piano, you'd get what the author delightfully calls a "tonal traffic jam". But that's enough of me talking - go read (and listen to) the article!