Appreciation: Composers are often revered but rarely beloved. Kaija Saariaho was both
LOS ANGELES — This year's Ojai Festival began Thursday night with a tribute to Kaija Saariaho, the Finnish composer who died earlier this month. For Ojai, Steven Schick performed an ethereal percussion piece inspired by the moss garden at the Kyoto temple Saiho-ji, which is the greenest place I have ever visited. Saiho's overpowering mossy scent engenders a marvelous sense of peace, and Saariaho's miniature, the fifth movement of her "Six Japanese Gardens," magically captures it, even when experienced, as I did, via the festival's livestream.
At precisely the same moment, Saariaho's life-long friend, Esa-Pekka Salonen, happened to be leading the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of her war-themed second opera, "Adriana
