Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to Ojai Music Festival for extraordinary 80th anniversary

For 80 years the astir magical euphony festival successful America has taken spot implicit a agelong aboriginal June play successful a municipality that got its sanction from the Chumash connection for moon, that likens itself to Shangri-la and that lets clip halt for those abrupt moments erstwhile the mounting prima pinkens the Topatopa mountains. Ojai has agelong been location to Theosophists, avant-gardists, potters and naturalists joining different outsiders and mystics with a whim for wonder. Here the enduring contented of Indian spiritual philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, Ojai’s informal patron saint, serves adjacent to clasp a caller incursion of ultra-rich to account.

But the Ojai Music Festival comfortableness portion goes nary further than a blissful outdoor mounting successful Libbey Park and convivial audience. This is wherever you spell to get implicit immoderate philharmonic defenses you stubbornly maintain, beryllium they astir caller euphony (a festival mainstay) oregon precise aged euphony (a festival root of discovery). If you privation to recognize however L.A. became uniquely optimistic toward caller ways of reasoning astir music, you would bash good to thrust immoderate 70 miles up the seashore and crook right.

In 1 of its galore distinctions from different festivals, Ojai stays caller by yearly changing euphony directors and for its 80th day Esa-Pekka Salonen returned aft a quarter-century absence. He had served earlier, portion euphony manager of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, successful 1999 (when helium brought a set of feisty Finnish pals to rise merry and momentous Cain) and 2001. He has been sought aft ever since and this year’s homecoming has layers of significance.

Seventeen years aft stepping down from the L.A. Phil and astatine 67 having go 1 of the world’s astir awesome conductors and composers, helium is moving backmost to L.A., wherever helium volition go the L.A. Phil originative manager and proceed arsenic the Colburn School’s manager of conducting. The 80th day further served arsenic a infinitesimal of transition, being the past summertime for its creator and enforcement director, Ara Guzelimian, who has had a half-century Ojai beingness successful 1 mode oregon another, allowing him the uncommon quality to usher the festival successful ever astonishing caller directions arsenic a substance of tradition.

The 13 concerts from June 11 to 14 included greeting and evening concerts successful Libbey Bowl — accompanied by immoderate birds happened to beryllium around, ever-present crickets, occasional yacking wanders-by, the unusual airplane flyover and adjacent postulation Ojai miraculously turns into enchantment alternatively than annoyance. Elsewhere successful municipality determination were early-morning meditation concerts and day events. Salonen added 3 favourite films to the programming astatine the Ojai Playhouse, which has lately go a classy cinematheque wherever you tin bask an iced David Lynch cappuccino connected a lukewarm afternoon, made connected what had been the director’s idiosyncratic espresso instrumentality and with java beans specially roasted to his preferences.

Salonen looked to composers who had influenced him, including 2 Italian avant-gardists, Niccolò Castiglioni and Franco Donatoni, the second of whom Salonen successful a treatment with Guzelimian described arsenic a benignant of loveable, off-the-wall kleptomaniac — helium got into occupation with the Carabinieri successful Sienna for pocketing lingerie. Both person go neglected composers, making the former’s seductive “Dulce Rifrigerium: Six Spiritual Songs for Piano” and the latter’s startling “Ave” (for flute, celesta and percussion) uncommon finds.

Clarinetist Anthony McGill performs Olivier Messiaen’s “Abyss of the Birds” arsenic portion of an Ojai Meadows Preserve greeting meditation during the 2026 Ojai Music Festival.

(Timothy Teague / Ojai Music Festival)

There were selections, caller and old, from adjacent Salonen friends John Adams (himself doubly an Ojai euphony director) and Magnus Lindberg, arsenic good arsenic the precocious Oliver Knussen, Steven Stucky and Kaija Saariaho, each of whom sounded arsenic if successful priceless speech with themselves and their times. Adams offered 2 incidental caller soft pieces and 1 for drawstring quartet containing his diagnostic rhythmic excitement and melodic eloquence.

These composers were garlanded by 3 of the astir important composers of the 20th century, each of whom Salonen collaborated with — Witold Lutoslawski, György Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen, whose “Quartet for the End of Time” was a festival signifier. The younger procreation included Gabriella Smith, Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Andrew Norman. Friday and Sunday evenings, Stravinsky, who reigned implicit the festival successful the 1950s, and Schoenberg had pridefulness of spot arsenic the 2 pillars of midcentury 20th period euphony successful L.A.

The ensembles were the 2 that Salonen works with astir intimately successful America, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and the spectacular Colburn Orchestra (its archetypal quality astatine the festival). Among standout soloists and enclosure euphony players were the brilliantly effusive violinist Leila Josefowicz, the magnificently unflappable cellist Jay Campbell, the resourceful pianist Conor Hanick, the unstoppable Attacca String Quartet (the sanction says it all) and the New York Philharmonic’s stellar main clarinetist, Anthony McGill.

Geneva Lewis made her Ojai debut arsenic a violinist with an eloquent, silvery dependable arsenic did accordionist Hanzhi Wang, who gave an arresting show of Luciano Berio’s “Sequenza XII (Chanson)” successful a peculiar indoor programme of 4 of the Italian composer’s solo works paired with dancers and choreographers from L.A. Dance Project.

Salonen’s ain music, overmuch of it caller to L.A., was threaded throughout. His clarinet concerto, “kinema” (with McGill arsenic soloist and members of the Colburn Orchestra), repurposes evocative bits of movie euphony that went good with the films helium selected for the Ojai Playhouse (“Wings of Desire,” “2001” and “Fallen Leaves”), portion his caller “Drommelogikk,” a violin and cello duo played by Lewis and Campbell, reflected a hallucinating imagination astir Rossini.

Salonen paid tribute to Knussen with “Arabesques for Olly,” a haunting duet for cellos. For the last amusement June 14, helium began the aboriginal evening programme with “Fog,” which had been his 90th day contiguous to Frank Gehry. It is simply a riff connected the Prelude from Bach’s Partita No. 3 for solo violin, the archetypal euphony heard successful the precocious architect’s Walt Disney Concert Hall portion inactive nether construction. At Ojai, Lewis wistfully performed the solo prelude disconnected successful Libbey Park shrubbery arsenic if a dallying wood tone summoning ghosts of festivals past. In this case, that mightiness possibly person been composer and conductor Lukas Foss, a five-time festival manager betwixt 1961 and 1980 erstwhile festival euphony manager who wrote his ain sensation-making riff connected the aforesaid Bach prelude successful his 1967 “Baroque Variations.”

In 2018, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the festival’s euphony manager that year, ended her festival with a show of the Ligeti’s bizarre Violin Concerto successful which she enticed the austere Mahler Chamber Orchestra into standing, singing and dancing successful her uplifting performance. It was 1 of the defining Ojai moments.

Salonen brought backmost the concerto with Josefowicz and the Colburn Orchestra successful a show that has to beryllium heard (and seen!) to beryllium believed for its fantastic virtuosity, whimsical weirdness and Josefowicz’s absorption of euphony into her body. Some thought she went excessively far, particularly successful the chaotic closing cadenza she composed. You decide. The festival live-streams the events and archives them connected its website and YouTube. You tin spot Salonen, who gave Josefowicz the enactment to beryllium brazen, rima to her astonished wows!

Finns whitethorn not beryllium known for demonstrative cheerfulness, nor needfully for being makers of excessively blessed music. But Salonen’s homeland ranks No. 1 this twelvemonth connected the World Happiness Report, and his revelatory show of Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” with the Colburn Orchestra, with which helium closed the festival, demonstrated why. In his 1920 neo-Classical ballet, Stravinsky’s remodeled the Baroque composer Pergolesi (as did Picasso with his candy-colored sets of Naples to spell on with it), striving not for merriment but the simpler pleasance of uncovering caller bottles for aged vino you thought was surely spoiled but turned fruity instead.

Conductors emotion to play “Pulcinella” for goofy laughs, exaggerating trombone glissandi and the like, relishing guffaws from the audience. But Stravinsky wasn’t goofy, helium was simply a modernizer, giving america caller ears successful which to perceive unnoticed qualities successful aged euphony arsenic Picasso did successful gifting america caller eyes with which to spot our surrounding anew.

This, then, became the happiest of “Pulcinellas” for its existential consciousness of contentment. Salonen recovered renewal not from the desperation of rethinking but from freshening, illuminating the cognition of exceptional young musicians archetypal encountering greatness. In these uncertain times, that whitethorn beryllium the astir singular enactment of creator optimism.

Next twelvemonth the Ojai Music Festival volition beryllium successful the hands of Teddy Abrams arsenic the caller creator and enforcement director, and his archetypal euphony manager volition beryllium mandolinist Chris Thile.