The Ojai Music Festival is dedicated to presenting artists who mine a deep vein of tradition and venture beyond the boundaries of “classical” music, to a sphere that is below (or above) the radar of the vast majority of music lovers. Trained in the techniques and aesthetics of the pre-twentieth century canon, there is a growing number of composers and musicians who chafe at the constraints of the world of dead icons and well-worn repertoire. One of the most energetic and engaging avatars of today’s young artists, one who brings a spirited, dense and deeply considered approach to exploring and promoting what is sometimes referred to as new music, is 2018’s OMF music director Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who in the spirit of directness and fun calls herself PatKop. She believes in mashups and deconstructions that demonstrate the deep connections between the old and the new and looks to new horizons, playing her violin with a passion and intensity that lifts the inquiries and explorations way beyond the technical mastery of her instrument. The festival began with Ms. Kop wandering around Libbey Park among audience members and “gravestones” of the likes of Bach and Mahler while playing a composition by Luigi Nono accompanied via loudspeakers by recordings manipulated by Scott Worthington. The gravestones appeared again at the end of “Bye Bye Beethoven,” a staged concept concert that leapt from Ives to Hayden to Cage, then Bach, Kurtag and Beethoven. A somewhat bewildering journey that ended with a really extraordinary performance of Ludwig’s Violin Concerto for Violin in D Major, which appropriately devolved when the musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra threw their music stands to the ground and stormed offstage, leaving Ms. Kop, clad in burlap, collapsed centerstage as a wall behind came forward to sweep away the detritus of the old. The panels of the wall separated to reveal the musicians paying their last respects to the the dead white guys’ monuments. An impressive beginning to the weekend.
