Ojai Festival Programming Set, Featuring Five Works by Ligeti

Pierre Boulez, music director of the 43rd Ojai Festival, has announced programming for the event’s five concerts, scheduled in the outdoor Festival Bowl in downtown Ojai, June 2-4.

The French composer/conductor, who will make a number of appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles during the weeks preceding the June festival, will preside over his fourth Ojai Festival. He has chosen to feature five works of Gyorgy Ligeti during the Ojai weekend.

Members of the L.A. Philharmonic will perform at the Ventura County facility, along with the Pacific Chorale and singers from L.A. Music Center Opera. Among the soloists will be soprano Phyllis Byrn-Julson, pianists Ursula Oppens and Alan Feinberg and the Arditti String Quartet.

At the opening concert, June 2 at 8 p.m., Boulez will conduct music by Schubert, Debussy, Ravel and Ligeti. The event will conclude with Stravinsky’s “Les Noces.”

June 3 at 1 p.m., the Arditti Quartet will play music by Ligeti, Boulez and Berg. At 8 p.m., Boulez will lead the Philharmonic, Pacific Chorale and soloist Byrn-Julson in the West Coast premiere of Ligeti’s “Apparitions,” the same composer’s Double Concerto for flute and oboe, and a complete, concert version of Stravinsky’s “Le Rossignol.”

Oppens and Feinberg make their debut as a two-piano team at the 11 a.m. concert, June 4. They will play music by Mozart, Lutoslawski, Brahms, Ligeti and Bartok.

At the 5:30 p.m. concert closing the festival, Boulez will conduct two of his own works, “Memoriale” and “Pli selon pli.”