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Have taken a new spin on Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata (first movement) as the total playing time is 3:16 as compared with Glenn Gould's recording which comes in at 4:16. I have managed to shave off one full minute from Gould's playing time:

https://www.box.com/s/mfhes1umawzxcv7y7jcy

And, here is Glenn's legendary take:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD6pGV69fJI

Please note that we both impart our own dynamics to the piece which invariably will draw a few comments, for better or worse.

Increase the tempo and it raises the level of difficulty!

As a comment and nothing more.
I do prefer the faster playing, but is it your recording arangements or your instrument which makes the sound very "thin"

This seems overly loud. (didn't want to disappoint you ), and I could do without the electric piano in the mix too. I'm not sold on the faster tempo versions of this piece as they seem to lose any mood that I feel the music is famed for having. Your last statement begs the question, why not just play a harder piece?

The fast tempo I took was just in fun as it was not a serious attempt at a legitimate performance. I made the recording above at my newly acquired Clavinova CLP-990M. Here is another one (with serious intent) at a more reasonable tempo and is played using only the default "Grand Piano 1" preset, again at the CLP-990M:

https://www.box.com/s/xyw872ct88099bw963vv

And, here are better ones at the Roland V-Piano:*

https://www.box.com/s/zvdmxvz6p2q8aucui8mh

The recording above utilizes the default "Vintage 1" (Steinway "D" grand piano sound) with the V-Piano. This comes closer to an acoustic piano.

https://www.box.com/s/zq36ch5zpx0crl13lze5

This one uses the "Silver Extreme" strings preset with an increased decay time of +88 with the maximum being 100.

With the extra decay added it makes the V-Piano sound far more expressive like a real piano.

Hope that everyone enjoys the recordings.

*Extra note:

There is 16 seconds of silence in the first V-Piano recording and 19 seconds in the second one before playing starts.

I really like the Steinway D sound. Is that played on a Roland?
Quite frankly to me a faster tempo preferable. Slow is funerial and to me being out in the light of a full moon is great fun. Come to think about it I would not even bother to listen to the piece played by even the best pianist at what I suppose is the accepted tempo.

pv88, I listened to both your "take" and Gould's take on this Movement -- sorry, but Gould by a mile! I happen to be partial to his no-nonsense approach to this movement; as Andras Schiff has indicated, Beethoven's specific directive is cut time, and in my opinion the intent is that of a straightforward song. That's, of course, a very odd way of starting a Sonata, but I really don't believe Beethoven intended this to be gloomily atmospheric and "profound"; if he had, he would have done so in the manner of some of the slow movements in his early Sonatas.

I guess it's because of this songful character, though, that I feel no urgency to break the 4- minute- mile barrier. The "singer", so to speak, has to be given time to breathe and shape the melody, and I just don't think that's possible at less than 4 1/4 minutes.