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He led the BSO for 29 years. I lived in the Boston area for five of those years and saw him conduct only once or twice. (It was a major schlep to get from Waltham to Symphony Hall; I spent a lot of time in evening rehearsals, and there were many, many free concerts at Brandeis. In retrospect, if I'd had any sense, I would have coordinated my flute lessons, in Brookline, with the Friday matinees.)
As I understand it, the length of his tenure in Boston eventually became a problem; conflicts with the orchestra, etc. I wasn't there and wasn't paying a lot of attention, but I do remember the relief when he finally resigned and James Levine became the music director. That....ultimately didn't work out either, between Levine's health and divided attention.
Ozawa was the music director of SFS in the 1970s, and my sense is that locally, people regard him as having used the position as a springboard to a bigger and better appointment, which the BSO certainly was, at the time. Today, well, the Big Five are the Big Seven and numerous other U.S. orchestras (Seattle, Minnesota, Buffalo, and more) play on an extremely high level.
I've now read two different obituaries, at WBUR, Boston, and the NY Times, and gosh, there are outright errors in the obits and the same two omissions.
- Typo in a Times photo caption, "Ozawar". (Could happen anywhere; now fixed.)
- "Big Five" interpreted to mean "five greatest orchestras in the world", in the WBUR obit. (Still not fixed.)
- Neither mentions survivors! It's pro-forma in an obit to say "Information on survivors was not immediately available" or "The Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland, which announced the death, did not release any information about survivors." (Times obit now includes survivors.)
- Neither - and this is amazing from James R. Oestreich at the Times, in what must have been an advance obit - mentions that Ozawa conducted the world premiere of Olivier Messiaen's sole opera, St. Francois d'Assise.
- Was it a sprained or broken finger that made him turn to conducting?
- BSO Press Release
- James R. Oestreich, NY Times (gift link)
- Tim Page, Washington Post (gift link; superb obituary)
- Richard Dyer, Boston Globe
- Andrea Shea, WBUR
- Metropolitan Opera remembers Ozawa
Tim Page in the WA Post, which is where I read about it, does mention the Messiaen and Ozawa's general penchant for big complex works (like the Gurrelieder and the War Requiem). He devotes swathes of text both to Ozawa's talents and style as a conductor and to the gradually increasing problems in Boston. He mentions SFS only in passing as if it were for Ozawa just a way station on the way to Boston, which attitude is basically the reason Ozawa's memory is considered more an irritant here than anything else.
ReplyDeletePage also lists Ozawa's wives and children, and then adds that no list of survivors was available.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if "Ozawar" is how some Bostonians pronounced his name. I was surprised, but shouldn't have been, when watching a tape of JFK's address on the Cuban Missile Crisis, to find that he really did call the country "Cuber."
ReplyDeleteTim's obit is by far the most complete, though the Oestreich has caught up and now includes survivors.
ReplyDeleteI assume that SFCV and the Chron will have obits up sooner or later.
I will be updating this post with links and addenda, but probably not until late tonight (review tonight, busy work day) or the weekend.
ReplyDeleteRichard Dyer came out of retirement to write a very nice obituary in the Boston Globe. It addresses your concerns.
ReplyDeleteVery likely it's an update of an advance obit he wrote a while back. :)
ReplyDeleteVery likely indeed! He did retire 18 years ago and it took the Globe a while to post it, but maybe that was due to the additional reporting to update it. Ozawa was BSO conductor for most of the time I lived in Boston. I enjoyed his Mahler performances in particular.
ReplyDelete