Whose music is the Moonlight Sonata?

The Moonlight Sonata is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, completed in 1801. Beethoven himself gave it the title Sonata quasi una fantasia, meaning a sonata in the manner of a fantasy. The famous nickname came from the German music critic Ludwig Rellstab, who, after Beethoven’s death, compared the dreamy first movement to moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne. Beethoven dedicated the work to his young pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, with whom he is thought to have been in love. While the slow opening is gentle, the final movement is stormy and very difficult to play.