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Music review: Ojai Music Festival when it's 64
Ojai, remarkably, remains Ojai. The 64th Ojai Music Festival was
held over the weekend. The beloved, unstable Libbey Bowl was
no less ratty, its uneven wood benches no more comfortable
than before. The valley’s light looked illuminated, as
is its wont, from heaven. Local ice cream, tangerines and
olive oil lived up to their reputations.
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Ojai Music Festival, California
With a span of only four days, the Ojai Music Festival might
look like a blip on the festival circuit, an event notable
as much for the natural beauty of its Ojai Valley setting,
north of Los Angeles, as for its breadth of offerings. But
appearances can be deceptive, and those who came for the duration
of the festival were enriched in a way that selective dips
into festivals of greater scope would have difficulty matching.
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Smart and provocative, Ojai delivers a compelling modernist
weekend
It says something about the natural splendor of the Ojai Valley,
north of Los Angeles, that it served for a view of Shangri-La
in Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon, although the 1938 film
couldn’t capture the olfactory allure of the valley’s
orange blossoms.
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Zappa invades Ojai
The city of Ojai, population 8,202, nestled in a idyllic valley
12 or so miles inland from Ventura, stays the same. Zoning
and no growth laws keep it that way, year after year. There
are no chain stores here, no malls. But there are lots of
old oaks and citrus groves, mom and pop stores and fancy little
boutiques. Visiting Ojai feels like stepping into California's
past.
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Smart and provocative, Ojai delivers a compelling modernist
weekend
Ah, Ojai, where musical works by boundary-breaking composer
Arnold Schoenberg can sound almost retro when
juxtaposed with fresh works featuring the sinuous exoticism
of Saed Haddad, 38, and the mind-expanding fragmentation of
Steve Potter, 30.
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A Modern Weekend in Ojai
Summer has not yet officially arrived, but classical music
is already decamping from the cities and heading for more
bucolic settings. Getting an early start, the 64th annual
Ojai Music Festival concluded on Sunday night in this picturesque
town of 8,000 people some 90 miles north of Los Angeles.
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George Benjamin and friends say good-bye to historic Libbey
Bowl
When you drive to the bucolic town of Ojai, up the coast and
inland from Los Angeles, you think of its
enchanted valley as a destination, like the end-of-the-rainbow
Shangri-La it depicted in the classic film,
Lost Horizon. If, however, you take the “back”
route up highways 5 and 126, over the hill and into its west
bound valley,
Ojai can seem a momentary crossroads to other destinations
along the coast.
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Equal time for Frank Zappa's 'serious' side in Ojai fest
In the main event at this year's contemporary music-minded
Ojai Music Festival, the famed German group Ensemble Modern
featured the 'classical' side of Frank Zappa on Friday night.
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Innovation resounds as Ojai Music Fest ends
“Relationships” was the telling word that popped
up in comments by Christopher Hailey minutes before the final
concert of the 64th annual Ojai Music Festival on Sunday in
Libbey Park. Just hearing that word suggested the approach
of this year’s music director, George Benjamin, a Brit
who is a bright light of contemporary composing and conducting.
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Ojai Music Festival 2010
Under the direction of 2010 Music Director George Benjamin,
the Ojai Music Festival swelled to bursting with gorgeous
music, talented performers, challenging ideas, and eager listeners.
In this 64th edition—the last in the original configuration
of Libbey Bowl, which is to be rebuilt in time for next year’s
festival—the programming ranged from the modern sacred
music of Olivier Messiaen to the postmodernism of the often
profane Frank Zappa.
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Serious, contemporary-ish music takes a holiday
Several years ago, ripples of excitable anticipation could
be sensed among the contemporary music fans in SoCal with
news of a first-time visit by Germany's stunningly fine Ensemble
Modern — considered a pinnacle of its class, something
akin to the Radiohead of new music. That tour was canceled,
unfortunately, and excitement yielded to disappointment.
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Review of the 2010 Ojai Music Festival (part I)
The famous Ojai Music Festival, held yearly in the homonymous
town of Southern California, boasts a 63-year-long tradition
and a list of musical directors of the greatest available
prestige and lasts four full days (10-13 June this year).
In keeping with artistic director Thomas Morris' vision, every
year brings a new musical director to the festival, and with
them a different vision, performers and featured composers.
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Review
of the 2010 Ojai Music Festival (part II)
Eric Huebner's rendition of Messiaen's gargantuan Vingt
Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus opened the third
day's musical activities. Delivered in a straight two-hour
session to a chorus of rustling leaves and (it
seemed) appreciative birds, this performance pushed all the
right buttons as far as the electrified
mysticism goes, but was most distinctive in the portrayal
of an ecstatic sense of exhaustion—something
that can only be achieved by a pianist who is anything but
tired.
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Al Fresco Meeting of the Modernists
OJAI, California -- The Ojai Music Festival doesn’t quite
add up. This tiny town of about 8,000,
located in a valley of orange groves, vineyards and modest
mountains, has just one main street where
cars religiously stop for pedestrians. The Libbey Bowl, the
festival’s soon-to-be-rebuilt venue, has a
rustic 1957 band shell surrounded by trees and fronted by
wooden benches and a lawn where people
spread out with elaborate picnics. A good place for Tchaikovsky
and fireworks, you might assume. Read
more...
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FOR
THE COMPLETE REVIEWS FROM THE 2010 OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL,
CLICK
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