2024-02-09 15:14:55
The figure of the Japanese director Seiji Ozawa became legendary by becoming one of the first Asian musicians to conquer the main musical podiums in the West. Born in Shenyang (occupied China) in 1935, He died in Tokyo on February 6 at the age of 88.as announced by the Wiener Staatsoper, the main Viennese lyrical venue of which Ozawa was musical director between 2002 and 2010. Considered one of the most important orchestra conductors of the last 60 yearshad a wide operatic repertoire with various titles such as Evgeni Onegin, The Queen of Spades, Falstaff, Ernani, Jenůfa, The Flying Dutchman, Manon Lescaut, Wozzeck, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Elektra or Fidelio.
Master Ozawa graduated from the School of Music Toho of Tokyo and in 1959 he became known by winning the Besançon Directors’ Competition (France); Later he expanded his studies in Boston, at the Tanglewood Music Center, later traveling to Berlin, where he was an assistant to Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, succeeding with the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. His career in the United States catapulted him to sign contracts with the main record labels. managing, in 1973, to be crowned principal of the Boston Symphony, with which he reviewed and recorded an extensive symphonic repertoire.
After almost three decades with the North American ensemble, Ozawa concentrated on his work at the helm of the musical section of the Vienna Opera without giving up continuing to collaborate with highly prestigious ensembles, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony and the National Orchestra. of France, and attending the seasons of lyrical coliseums such as La Scala in Milan, the Paris Opera, Covent Garden in London or the Salzburg Festival as a guest.
At the Vienna Opera, where these days they fly the flags at half-mast in his memory, his musicians remember him for the importance he gave to ensemble rehearsals, in which he got involved with intensity and passion and without resorting to the hierarchical thinking typical of certain famous batons; on the contrary, Ozawa was a man as wise as he was modest., and he was characterized by a friendly treatment as well as a deep knowledge of the scores he performed, both opera and symphonic. He will also be remembered for being a great musical disseminator, leading educational projects for children and youth. “We have to do everything we can to introduce children to the beauty of music. And if we get just one percent of the 3,500 children who attend a performance to be excited about music, a lot will have already been achieved,” he said in this regard.
Among many other distinctions, he held an honorary doctorate from universities such as Massachusetts, Harvard or La Sorbonne, from the New England Conservatory and from Wheaton College in Norton. He founded the Saito Kinen Orchestra and Festival (Matsumoto, Japan), received an Emmy for a TV series dedicated to his relationship with the Boston Symphony, a Grammy for his recording of L’enfant et les sortilèges and in 2002 he conducted the New Year’s concert in Vienna.
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