Wander in Wonder As John Luther Adams' 'Inuksuit
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OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL The 66th festival will feature concerts, symposia and fi lm screenings from Thursday through June 10, with most concerts at Libbey Bowl and other activities at nearby downtown venues. The 2011 music director is Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes; the concert program refl ects his interests and features many of his musical friends and collaborators. CONCERT SCHEDULE TICKETS AND INFORMATION Thursday Visit ojaifestival.org 5 p.m.: West Coast premiere of John Luther Adams’ or call 646-2053. “Inuksuit.” 8 p.m.: John Luther Adams’ “Red Arc/Blue Veil,” OTHER DETAILS Shostakovich’s “Six Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva” Nature’s song Cost: Tickets to individual concerts and Ives’ “Concord” Piano Sonata No. 2. Performers cost $15-$110 (except for the ■ are pianists Andsnes and Marc-André Hamelin, “Inuksuit” concert on Thursday, Wander in wonder as John Luther Adams’ ‘Inuksuit’ envelops percussionist Steven Schick and mezzo-soprano which is free). Note: When ordering Christianne Stotijn. online, if you want $15 lawn seating, be sure to choose “Lawn” rather Libbey Park during next week’s Ojai Music Festival June 8 than “Bowl Main” in the drop-down menu next to “Select Area.” Festival 8 p.m.: Leos Janacek’s “Intimate Letters” String passes, available in packages of six, The 66th Ojai Music Festival will Quartet No. 2 arranged for string orchestra; and fi ve, four or two concerts, cost $25- open next week with a perfor- By Karen Lindell cence of children, who understand imagination and the world around Reinbert de Leeuw’s “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” $375. Ojai Late Night concerts are mance of John Luther Adam s’ [email protected] nothing. us,” Adams said. “At some point along (“In the Merry Month of May”), which features 11 free, but reservations are required. “Inuksuit” at Libbey Park. “The 805-437-0243 Adams, who grew up in the South the way I … became less interested songs from two song cycles, “Schumann’s Dichterliebe MARCO BORGGREVE/CONTRIBUTED PHOTO nature of each performance is Films: Three fi lms will be screened and New York City, and has lived near in making music ‘inspired’ by place and Schubert’s “Wintererreise,” and 10 of Schubert’s Mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn will fundamentally determined by the Fairbanks, Alaska, for more than 30 or ‘about’ place, and more interested individual songs. Performers are pianist-conductor during the festival: “The Matchstick team up with pianist/festival music unique characteristics of the site years, fi rst heard the voice of the uni- in music that in some way is place — Janacek, actress Barbara Sukowa and the Norwegian Men,” 2 p.m. June 9, profi les director Leif Ove Andsnes to perform at which it’s performed,” he said. Chamber Orchestra. composer György Kurtag. “Strange the places he’ll verse in Southern California. somehow conveys the enveloping Shostakovich’s “Six Poems of Marina and Sacred Noise,” 3:30 p.m. June EVAN HURD/HEINZ FOUNDATION go … to listen. In the early 1970s, as a music com- presence of a place.” 10:30 p.m.: Free “Ojai Late Night” concert will Tsvetaeva” at 8 p.m. Thursday. Oh, position student in the fi rst graduat- On Thursday night, that place will 9, is a documentary featuring a feature Andsnes, Hamelin, Stotijn and members of the To understand Alaskan composer ing class at the California Institute be Ojai. Norwegian Chamber Orchestra performing Sorensen’s performance of John Luther Adams’ “Strange and Sacred Noise” outdoors John Luther Adams’ search for an of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia, The 66th Ojai Music Festival, which “Lullabies,” Busoni’s “Berceuse Elégaique,” Mahler’s “ecology of music” — the idea that Adams became an environmental runs Thursday through June 10, will “Ruckert Lieder” and Schnittke’s Piano Quintet. in Alaska. “Pictures Reframed,” 2:30 p.m. June 10, documents the listening to natural sounds around us activist after visiting Los Padres Na- open its series of concerts at Libbey multimedia collaboration between helps us understand our place in the tional Forest, where he saw California Bowl with the West Coast premiere of June 9 Leif Ove Andsnes and video artist world — consider this excerpt from condors and learned their numbers Adams’ “Inuksuit,” written specifi cally 11 a.m.: Eivind Buene’s “Langsam und Schmachtend,” Robin Rhode on Mussorgsky’s his prose poem “The Place Where were dwindling. He wrote the fi rst of to be performed outside. Forget the po- Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder,” Berg’s “Four “Pictures at an Exhibition.” You Go to Listen,” inspired by an his compositions grounded in nature, lite “remain seated, silent and sedate” Pieces” for clarinet and piano and “Four Songs,” Screenings take place at the Ojai Inupiat legend: “songsbirdsongs,” a collection of piec- concert rules. During the 80-minute and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major. Playhouse, 145 E. Ojai Ave. Admission Often, she remembered the teaching es for piccolo and percussion, listen- free “Inuksuit” concert, 45 percussion- Performers are pianists Andsnes and Hamelin, is free, but reservations are required. of an old shaman, who spoke of silam ing directly to birds, and continued ists and three piccolo players will be clarinetist Martin Fröst, mezzo-soprano Stotijn and the “Ojai Talks” symposia: Ara inua — the inhabiting spirit, the voice to compose more complex musical scattered throughout Libbey Park, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Guzelimian will lead two sessions of the universe. Silam inua speaks not “landscapes” after moving to Alaska. playing as audience members wander FELIX BROEDE/EMI CLASSICS 8 p.m.: Hallgrimsson’s “Poemi,” Sorensen’s Piano (one on Thursday ; one divided through ordinary words, but through “For years my work has always around to listen. Leif Ove Andsnes is the music direc- into two on June 8). “Music and fi re and ice, sunshine and calm seas, been deeply grounded in place, that Concerto No. 2, Hillborg’s “Peacock Tales” (version See ADAMS, 24 for clarinet and tape), Mozart’s Trio in E-fl at and tor, and one of the performers , for Place: A Creative Environment” the howling of wolves, and the inno- intersection between the human Kurtag’s “Hommage a Robert Schumann.” Performers the 66th Ojai Music Festival. with percussionist Steven Schick are clarinetist Fröst, pianist Andsnes, violist Antoine will focus on John Luther Adams’ Tamestit and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. “Inuksuit,” 3:30-4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ojai Playhouse, 145 E. Ojai Ave. 10:30 p.m.: Free “Ojai Late Night” concert will feature “Music and Place: Norwegian the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra performing Mood” (1-2:30 p.m. June 8) will Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1, with readings from Leo feature a discussion with pianist and Tolstoy by actor Teodor Janson. festival director Leif Ove Andsnes; “Music and Place: The Interior June 10 Landscape” (3-4:30 p.m. June 8) will 11 a.m.: Bartok’s “Contrasts,” Grieg’s “Holberg be a talk with composer Reinbert de THE STAR . TIMEOUT Leeuw; both sessions take place at Suite,” Bolcom’s “Cabaret Songs” and Copland’s THE STAR . TIMEOUT » Clarinet Concerto. Performers are violinist Oyvind Ojai Valley Community Church, 907 El » Aubert Bjora, clarinetist Fröst, pianist Hamelin, Centro St. mezzo-soprano Stotijn and the Norwegian Chamber Ojai online: New this year, the Orchestra. festival will provide live streaming of 5:30 p.m.: Debussy’s “Danses sacrée et danse concerts and talks at ojaifestival.org. profane,” John Adams’ “Shaker Loops,” John Luther Ojai on the radio: Also new, host Adams’ “Dark Waves” and Stravinsky’s “Le sacre du FRAN KAUFMAN/CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Fred Child of American Public printemps.” Performers are pianists Andsnes and Pianist Marc-André Hamelin is set to Media’s classical music radio show Friday, June 1, 2012 June 1, Friday, Hamelin, harpist Ida Aubert Bang and the Norwegian perform works by Ives, Berg, Bartok “Performance Today” will provide 2012 June 1, Friday, Chamber Orchestra. and Stravinsky during the festival. in-depth coverage of the festival. 20 21 ADAMS most rapturous experienc- has produced significant from 21 es of (my) listening life.” achievements benefiting Percussionist Steven John Luther Adams the environment.” Adams, Schick, who will direct is fascinated by the awards presentation SITE AND SOUND “Inuksuit” in Ojai, said “musical color and brochure said, “reminds us “Inuksuit” is a “site- Thursday’s concert will be texture” and “the that when we listen care- determined” — not “site- unique because other per- purely sensu- fully we come to hear the specific” — work, Adams formances of the piece he’s ous qualities of whole world as music.” said, noting that the con- been involved with “have sound.” “My hope cepts come from visual been apart from communi- is that you get SHARED RESPONSE art. Site-specific artwork, ties via a wilderness set- drawn in and you Adams said he originally for example, is “made for ting. This performance is get lost,” he says. envisioned “a solitary fig- one location and that loca- designed to be an integral DENNIS KEELEY/ ure (a musician, composer tion only.” part of the Ojai communi- CONTRIBUTED PHOTO or individual listener) in a A site-determined piece ty by being placed in the vast landscape” while cre- of music, Adams said, “is park and downtown area.” ating “Inuksuit.” di!erent in every location “Inuksuit” is an Inukti- But he was surprised — in which it’s performed, tut word for stone figures and delighted — by the “ex- and that’s the point of the constructed by the native traordinary sense of com- piece. It’s a counterpoint, Inuit people in the Arctic. munity ‘Inuksuit’ seems to a call-and-response, a dia- The word itself means “to create,” among both musi- logue between the music act in the capacity of the cians and listeners.