In Friday’s (8/27) New York Times, David Itzkoff writes, “The conductor Seiji Ozawa said on Thursday that he had successfully completed a treatment for esophageal cancer, but that his continuing recovery would require him to curtail his appearances at the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto in Japan next month. Mr. Ozawa, who in January announced that he had cancer and has canceled several months’ worth of dates while he recovers from surgery, said in a statement that his doctor ‘has declared that I am completely cancer free at this time.’ But he added that the doctor had told him not to stand on a podium for long periods because of a sciatic problem that Mr. Ozawa wrote had ‘gotten much worse, since I was not able to move my body while recovering from the operation.’ Mr. Ozawa said he would not conduct two orchestra programs at the festival, where he is to make his return appearance on Sept. 5, and would conduct only the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s ‘String Serenade’ at the start of each concert. (The movement runs about 10 minutes.) Mr. Ozawa said he hoped to make a full recovery in time for his scheduled appearances at Carnegie Hall in December.”
Posted August 27, 2010
