These ‘Idyll’ Moments

Let it not be said the resident chamber music champion, Camerata Pacifica, doesn’t celebrate diversity. During the season, the impression given is that its classical music repertoire is a vast, multifaceted world, full of surprises and comforts.

Last month’s program, for example, had as its second-half anchor the romantic main course of Brahms’ Sonata in E flat for Viola and Piano, nicely realized by violist Donald McInnes and pianist Joanne Pearce Martin.

But the real jewels were tiny, rare things tucked in the crevices. Nino Rota, best known as film director Fellini’s composer, was represented in oboist Lesley Reed’s performance of “Elegia,” probably the season’s finest music under three minutes. Elliott Carter’s own early tonal “Elegie” was haunting, with its ruefully meandering melody.

This weekend’s program is probably the season’s most definably modern concert, but that’s no reason to stay away. George Crumb’s “Idyll for the Misbegotten” blends in with the soothing sounds of Debussy, Honegger, a pinch of Rachmaninoff and Bartok’s juicy Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, persuasive evidence that 20th century music can be exciting business.

* Camerata Pacifica, today at Music Academy of the West, 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara; Friday at Santa Barbara City College, 721 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara; Saturday at Temple Beth Torah, 7620 Foothill Road, Ventura; Sunday at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Forum Theater, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. All performances, 8 p.m. $25. (800) 557-BACH.

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Further Adventures in New Music: It must be something about spring. The New West Symphony’s program this weekend also leans toward newer scores, between Argentine composer Ginastera’s “Estancia” and music from John Corigliano’s score to the film “The Red Violin,” featuring soloist Charles Stegeman. Berlioz’s beloved “Symphonie Fantastique” finishes off a warhorse-free concert.

* New West Symphony, Friday at Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard; Saturday at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Both performances, 8 p.m. $8-$67. (800) NEW-WEST.

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Seeds of Art-Making: Head up the stairwell to the Upstairs Gallery at Natalie’s Fine Threads in Ventura and you get a reliable hint that it’s not business as usual. The distinctive wall sculpture called “Balance of Nature” has a list of materials that includes leaves, roots, grasses and other natural elements interwoven into a form like a giant seed pod.

This is a ripe introduction to the artistic world of Richard Solomon, whose strange, pleasing exhibition “From a Seed” openly pays tribute to aspects of nature and the culture of Native Americans. The Los Angeles artist assiduously avoids traditional art supply sources and instead scavenges materials from nature, bringing the outside organically in.

Specifically, this work springs from the art and artifacts of the Matussa Tribe, including a replica of a child’s “birthing blanket” and several storytelling “staffs.” In “Seed Looker,” the materials include gnarled palm branches and the dry, desert-evoking coyote melon.

Seeds come to symbolize fertility and creativity for the artist, whose work might sound too perilously new age for comfort. But seen firsthand, the results are intriguing, thanks to Solomon’s knack for melding materials into a happy, cogent and artistic whole.

* “From a Seed,” works by Richard Solomon, Upstairs Gallery at Natalie’s Fine Threads, 596 E. Main St., Ventura. Ends April 13. Tuesday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-4 p.m. (805) 643-8854.

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Last Call for O’Neill: This is the last weekend to catch the Santa Paula Theater Center’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s “A Moon for the Misbegotten,” a long, sometimes intense and ultimately satisfying evening of theater, intelligently directed by Gerald Castillo.

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* “A Moon for the Misbegotten,” Santa Paula Theater Center, 125 S. 7th St. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Ends April 7. $15 general; $12 senior citizens and students; $10 children 10 and younger. (805) 525-4645.