One of Beethoven’s most beloved and enduring works, its famous title came from the poet Ludwig Rellstab, who, hearing the steady triplets of the first movement, was reminded of the moonlight shimmering on Lake Lucerne.

This piece was inspired by the fantastical prose poems of Aloysius Bertrand. Each movement—Ondine, Le Gibet, and Scarbo—transforms a poetic image into sound: seduction by a water‑nymph, the bleak tolling of a distant gallows bell, and the manic, shape‑shifting terror of a nocturnal goblin. It is one of the most technically demanding works in the repertoire.

Born in Bulgaria, Dobrinka Tabakova has lived in London since 1991.

NOCTURNE (2008) is a short, lyric evocation of the stillness of night.

Of HALO (1999) Tabakova writes: ‘The inspiration for this suite came from a beautiful halo which had formed around the moon one summer’s night”. In three movements the piece traces the “life” of a halo from its mysterious emergence to its radiant peak and finally to a serene, glowing stillness.

Dedicated to his patron Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, the Sonata is one of his boldest middle‑period works. Its shimmering opening, its hushed and slow introduction, and radiant, sunrise‑like finale earned the work its alternative name L’Aurora (“The Dawn”). It pushed the piano to new expressive and technical heights; Beethoven’s biographer described it as ‘an heroic symphony for piano’.