The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music profile: Seiji Ozawa speaks out about cancer, conducting | September 18, 2010
By Jacob Stockinger
In 2002, Japanese-born conductor Seiji Ozawa (below) — a protege of Leonard Bernstein — left the Boston Symphony Orchestra after almost 30 years. Born in 1935, he had previously been in San Francisco and Toronto.
When he left, there were unkind words about how the symphony had degenerated or grown lax under his long — some said too long — tenure. So he was replaced with Met Opera conductor James Levine.
But Ozawa, who went to the Vienna State Opera, recently faced serious health problems, including esophogeal cancer.
He recently returned to the podium, albeit briefly, at a festival in Japan.
On that occasion, the New York Times featured a fine interview with the veteran musician.
Ozawa’s story of persistence is an inspiring testament to the importance that making music continues to hold for him.
It’s worth reading and so here is a link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/arts/music/09ozawa.html
Here is a link to Wikipedia’s bio of Ozawa;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiji_Ozawa
Here is also a link to Ozawa on Ozawa:
I’d be interested in hearing if you heard Ozawa live or like his recordings.
The Ear wants to hear.
3 Comments »
Leave a comment
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 
[…] Source: Classical song profile: Seiji Ozawa speaks out about cancer, conducting […]
LikeLike
Pingback by Classical music profile: Seiji Ozawa speaks out about cancer, conducting | 7 Top M Download — September 20, 2010 @ 5:52 am
[…] more: Classical music profile: Seiji Ozawa speaks out about cancer … Posted in 19, Classical Tags: Classical, classical music, james-levine, leonard-bernstein, […]
LikeLike
Pingback by Classical music profile: Seiji Ozawa speaks out about cancer … | Download MP3 whit Hitsongdownloadmp3.info — September 18, 2010 @ 6:03 am
I lived in Boston for four years, first as a graduate student at the New England Conservatory, and then stayed two more years, attempting to launch a performing career that never quite launched….
One of the great perks of the Conservatory was that it was literally a two block wall from Symphony Hall, and a steady stream of tickets were donated to be given away to students. I also was able to usher for Friday matinees, and so I heard Ozawa a number of times.
This was 1977-81, and even then, early in his tenure, there were occasional crticisms of his penchant for pursuing lush sounds over discipline of ensemble. Nobody complained of the way his Debussy or Tchaikovsky sounded, but there was plenty of sniping over Beethoven and Brahms (when he would play them).
It was during that time I had my first great lesson of how the same group of musicians could sound so different under a different conductor. The only time I saw Georg Solti in person was as a guest conductor of the Boston Sym., around 1979 or ’80. The program: Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. Having owned a number of Solti/Chicago recordings for a number of years by that time, I recall being surprised at how much the Boston Sym. sounded like Chicago!
LikeLike
Comment by Greg Hettmansberger — September 18, 2010 @ 5:49 am