Seiji Ozawa!
It has become fashionable, for some reason, to issue huge collections of music by well-known performers and conductors. As such, conductor Seiji Ozawa is no exception. Good way for the recording companies to generate more revenue, and it creates a single “fortress” of the creative work of one person.
Ozawa studied with Herbert von Karajan, and also with Leonard Bernstein. For many years Ozawa was the leader of the Boston Symphony, and now he directs the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
The music in this collection is amazing in its variety; it includes compositions by the following composers:
J. S. Bach, Bartók, Berlioz, Bernstein, Mahler, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Ravel, Richard Strauss, and a few others.
All this music is, of course a summary of sorts of Ozawa’s great career in leading the performances of fine music world wide. In my view, he is a wonderful, humble, delightful, and resourceful person who has devoted himself to excellence during his long and distinguished career.
Here is a wonderful video of the young Ozawa, rehearsing Beethoven with pianist Rudolf Serkin:
And here is Seiji Ozawa in conversation with Fergus McWilliam about his many years as a conductor at the Berlin Philharmonic