RESOUNDING SUCCESS INNOVATION KEEPS OJAI MUSIC FEST FRESH FOR HALF A CENTURY.

Byline: David Mermelstein Correspondent

Perhaps it's no coincidence that Frank Capra filmed his adaptation of James Hilton's novel ``Lost Horizon'' in Ojai. Time stands still in Ojai, as it does in Shangri-La. Or so it seems, at least.

Ojai, a 90-minute drive north of Los Angeles, has much to recommended it. It is certainly a pretty place, and the pace of life there is, well, relaxed. Except at the end of spring. Then, for a long weekend, music fills Ojai's air - as do bird calls and frog croaks and the scent of orange blossoms and night-blooming jasmine.

The Ojai Music Festival has been enriching life in this small community since 1947, and in a big way, too. This isn't some community-arts program in which the wives of city fathers put themselves on embarrassing public display. Rather, the Ojai Festival - which this year runs from Thursday through Sunday - has attracted some of the world's greatest musicians, both composers and performers.

It was here, in postage-stamp-size Libbey Park, that Stravinsky, Copland and Boulez raised batons under blazing sun and starry skies. Conductors Simon Rattle, Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen have made similar pilgrimages. As has Kent Nagano, best-known locally as the music director of the Los Angeles Opera, who this year makes his fourth appearance as the festival's music director, a position that rotates annually. (His previous stints were 1985, 1986 and 1995).

For Nagano, as for many of the festival's previous directors, Ojai's distinctive musical profile is as much a draw as its physical charms.

``There are so many music festivals in the world today that there is a danger many of them are becoming indistinguishable,'' says Nagano. ``It's taken the esprit out of such things and diluted it. But Ojai has managed to stay related to its community and remain a California taste. I can't think of anywhere else that gives me that feeling. It maintains its relevance through its sharp character and uniqueness.''

Ojai's reputation for cultivating the unexpected was honed by Lawrence Morton, the festival's artistic director from 1954-87. This year marks what would have been his 100th birthday, and on Friday morning the festival honors the occasion with a symposium devoted to his legacy.

The issue of legacies is bound to be on people's minds this year because the festival has a new artistic director, Tom Morris, who from 1987 until this March was executive director of the Cleveland Orchestra. He replaces Ernest Fleischmann, former managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who was Ojai's artistic director for five seasons.

Fleischmann organized his festivals thematically, an approach Morris doesn't favor. ``I'm not a big believer in too much dramaturgy,'' Morris says. ``The idea of building programs or festivals around some kind of specific theme, I find not a compelling idea in general. You find some pieces that fit the theme well, and then you have to find something to round it out, and that can lead to some less good pieces being performed. There should be some rhyme or reason to programming, but it shouldn't be too restricted in its thinking.''

There is certainly nothing restricted about this year's programs, which offer music from the 15th century to the present in various genres. Among the highlights are a concert performance of ``Die Kluge,'' a seldom performed one-act opera by Carl Orff, on Friday night; Bach's St. John Passion, performed by the early-music group Apollo's Fire, on Saturday night; and the premiere of Unsuk Chin's ``Snags and Snarls,'' for orchestra and mezzo-soprano, on Sunday night.

Chin's piece serves as something of a preview of her opera ``Alice in Wonderland,'' which the Los Angeles Opera has commissioned for its 2005-06 season. Chin says her music reflects her dreams. ``I try to render into music the visions of immense light and incredible colors I see,'' says the composer, ``a play of light and colors floating through the room and at the same time forming a fluid sound sculpture. Its beauty is very abstract and remote, but it addresses the emotions and is able to communicate joy and warmth.''

In addition to Nagano, this year's festival welcomes back pianist Mitsuko Uchida, who herself was Ojai's music director in 1998. She appears only on the festival's opening concert, sharing the bill with the choral group Chanticleer, but even that is something of a miracle. ``The timing is completely wrong,'' Uchida says. ``I would have said no to absolutely everyone else, so I don't know why I said yes.''

But of course Uchida knows why she accepted. ``Where else would I go to play a concert where I'm performing Schubert, then there's a chorus singing Schubert and Schumann, then I play Webern, then the chorus sings Ockeghem, and then I play Schoenberg?'' she says.

Uchida isn't the only pianist at this year's festival. The coveted Saturday afternoon recital slot has been given to the young Austrian Till Fellner, who will play Bach, Messiaen, Mozart and Beethoven. Nagano says giving Fellner that showcase was no accident.

``It has been a part of the tradition to have distinguished musical figures at Ojai, but it has also been part of the tradition to have lesser-known figures at the festival,'' the conductor says. ``Young artists have been given chances here, as in my own case. The first time I visited, golly, I think hardly anyone had heard of me. Ojai took a significant risk in asking me to lead the festival that first time. I'll never forget that. And I'm not unique. The festival and those who have run it have had the eyes, ears and vision to invest in next generations.''

Morris, for his part, is reluctant to discuss artists he's eyeing for future festivals. ``I have a huge wish list,'' he says, ``but I'd rather say they're coming than I wish they'd come. There are so many artists who have come to Ojai who I'd like to see return, and so many who have not come yet and who I hope will form the nucleus of those who keep coming back in the future.

But Morris is willing to talk about the festival's next music directors. Composer-conductor Oliver Knussen will fill the post in 2005, with the Cleveland Orchestra scheduled to appear. And Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony, will take the reins in 2006. Beyond that, Morris will say only that he's ``talking'' with David Robertson, music director designate of the St. Louis Symphony.

Change is, of course, a constant at Ojai. But it's reassuring to learn that courting the era's most interesting musicians is an Ojai tradition in no danger of being overturned.

THE 58TH OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL

What: Conductor Kent Nagano returns for a fourth time to oversee a typically eclectic series of concerts, with music from the 15th century to the present. Highlights include the opera ``Die Kluge'' by Carl Orff and Bach's St. John Passion, as well as solo piano performances by Mitsuko Uchida and Tell Fellner.

Where: Libbey Bowl, 205 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 10:30 a.m., 3:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 11:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $15 to $70. Call [phone] or go to www.ojaifestival.org.

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L.A. Opera's Kent Nagano will serve as music director of the Ojai Music Festival for the fourth time.