Sonoma’s Valley of the Moon Festival goes virtual

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth online.|

The Valley of the Moon Music Festival has been entertaining classical music aficionados for six years. This year - no surprise here - will be a bit different.

2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Ludwig Beethoven’s birth. To mark the occasion, and to observe all social distancing guidelines caused by COVID, the festival is going virtual.

The festival has always taken place over several weeks during the summer months, and this year will be no different. However, rather than audiences gathering in the performance space at Hanna Boys Center or in private homes, the performances will originate in the Berkeley home of festival founders Tanya Tompkins and Eric Zivian.

Zivian’s original hope of presenting “The Obsession: Beethoven’s Influence” was dashed and will be postponed until next year. Instead, the VMMF will offer audiences the complete cycle of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas for piano performed by Zivian.

The Valley of the Moon Music Festival is different than any other classical presentation in one interesting and distinct way: it is “historically informed.” This means that the musical pieces chosen will be performed on instruments authentic to the years in which they were written.

Beethoven wrote and performed his music on pianos that were very different than modern pianos. For example, a modern concert grand piano is much larger than Beethoven’s pianos would have been. A modern piano also has a steel frame, an innovation that did not come about until the 1860s, well after the composer’s works were written.

This is an important and obvious point. Beethoven could not have written his sensitive and melodic piano sonatas on a modern Fender Rhodes any more than Stevie Wonder could have written “Superstition” on a harpsicord.

Jimi Hendrix shreddin’ on a lute? Would never happen.

Two different Viennese fortepianos will be used during the series. They have been chosen to align with the different pianos Beethoven used during his lifetime. The early works will be performed on a smaller, more percussive Poletti piano, a painstakingly made copy of a 1795 Dulcken piano. For the later sonatas, an original Rauch piano made in 1841 will be used.

Performing these pieces on historically accurate pianos “brings out the liveliness and colors (of the pieces) that are not present on modern pianos,” said Tompkins.

Going virtual this summer means that instead of the thrill of having 22 musicians perform the selections, and the space they require, there will be “six incredibly talented people,” according to Tompkins.

One of those talented musicians is Audrey Vardenega, an East Coast resident who possesses a special interest in these historic pianos. Only 24 years old, she has already been playing 18 years, most recently under the tutelage of Richard Goode.

Vardenega was reached by phone, another innovation unknown to Beethoven. She expressed the thrill of playing the pieces on the types of instruments on which they were written, rather than modern pianos. She said, “It is incredible to explore these instruments. They offer such different nuances. These pieces were built for these instruments. It is easier to capture the feeling of the composer.”

The festival starts this Saturday and concludes Aug. 2. They will livestream a new concert every Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. In addition to the complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, the VMMF will present his smaller chamber works, including his violin sonatas.

All performances are free to the public. The VMMF has suggested a donation of$10 to support the musicians and its staff.

The programs can be heard on KSVY (91.3 FM) and SCTV 27.

Streaming is on demand at valleyofthemoonfestival.org. The complete program, listing musicians and which Beethoven sonatas are being performed, can also be viewed at valleyofthemoonfestival.org.

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