#4671, Ojai on the Air 2022, Part 4
From the ongoing collaboration between New Sounds and the Ojai Music Festival, listen to a program of J.S. Bach which upends expectations, as arranged by English-American flutist and composer Emi Ferguson and the period instrument band Ruckus. Plus, from the 2022 Festival Finale, a performance of Julius Eastman’s work of resistance as an act of joy, “Stay On It.”
English-American flutist and composer Emi Ferguson is an innovative musician who uses extended techniques and makes repertoire choices that span from the Renaissance to today. Then, there’s Ruckus, a collaborative baroque band who take a playful approach to early music. At their core is a continuo group, the baroque equivalent of a jazz rhythm section: guitars, keyboards, cello, bassoon and bass. Ferguson finds Ruckus special because of that "sparkly continuo section and the deep rich sounds you can get from our sustaining instruments." Listen Emi Ferguson and Ruckus play an aggressively rocking version of Bach’s Prelude in c Minor, along with music by violinist and songwriter Andrew Bird, who frequently quotes from classical music pillars and riffs on them in his songs. There’s also Emi Ferguson’s interpretation of a Bach Partita, where she takes the implied harmonies of Bach and mixes them with multiphonics on baroque flute. Ruckus and Ferguson flirt with both South American and Americana folk band feels as well.
Then, listen to the 2022 Festival Finale, hear singer and composer Julius Eastman's “Stay On It” from a different realization of the piece by cellist Seth Parker Woods. This performance features bass-baritone Davóne Tines, and the rest of the American Modern Opera Company.
This is Part 4 of a four-part series for 2022. The performances and interview were recorded at the 2022 Ojai Music Festival. -Caryn Havlik
Watch the entire concert:
#4671, Ojai on the Air 2022, Part 4 (First aired 10/06/2022)
ARTIST: Wendy Carlos
WORK: brandenburg concerto, no. 3 in g major, bwv 1048: iii. Allegro [1:27]
RECORDING: Switched on Bach
SOURCE: Columbia Masterworks / East Side Digital
INFO: Available at Amazon.com
ARTIST: Emi Ferguson & Ruckus
WORK: Johann Sebastian BACH Sonata in E minor, BWV 1034, Allegro [2:34]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | ruckusearlymusic.org
ARTIST: Emi Ferguson & Ruckus
WORK: Andrew Bird: Hover I [3:57]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | ruckusearlymusic.org
ARTIST: Emi Ferguson & Ruckus
WORK:Johann Sebastian BACH Prelude in C minor, afer BWV 847 [2:17]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | ruckusearlymusic.org
ARTIST: Emi Ferguson
WORK: Johann Sebastian BACH Partita in A minor, BWV 1013, Sarabande [4:54]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | ruckusearlymusic.org
ARTIST: Emi Ferguson & Ruckus
WORK: Johann Sebastian BACH, Sonata in E major, BWV 1035, Siciliano [3:18]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | ruckusearlymusic.org
ARTIST: Emi Ferguson & Ruckus
WORK: Johann Sebastian BACH Prelude in E major, after BWV 815a [2:02]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | ruckusearlymusic.org
ARTIST: Davóne Tines, members of American Modern Opera Company
WORK: Julius Eastman: Stay On it [13:15]
RECORDING: Live from Ojai, 2022
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: ojaifestival.org | runningamoc.org
