“Seiji Ozawa, 78, is now cancer-free, after a long and arduous recovery. The former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra has made a poignant, hard-won return to conducting, and last week he enjoyed a warm reunion with the BSO” in Tokyo on its Asia tour, writes Jeremy Eichler in Tuesday’s (5/13) Boston Globe. “Known for his irrepressible enthusiasm, he admits he returned to conducting too quickly, traveling to New York in December of 2010 to lead performances at Carnegie Hall after which, due to his sciatica, he could not walk.… This time, Ozawa is resuming activities more slowly.… Backstage at Suntory Hall, the reunion was a festive one…. Groups of veteran BSO musicians crowded around Ozawa and posed for photos. Younger players stopped by to introduce themselves.… This summer he will return to Europe for the first time in more than two years to lead performances by his training orchestras in Geneva and Paris.… Ozawa sounded upbeat. … He also had generous words for incoming NSO music director Andris Nelsons. ‘Wonderful, wonderful,’ he said.… Asked if he had any particular advice for Nelsons, who arrives even younger than Ozawa was in 1973, the conductor fell silent. Then his eyes suddenly brightened: ‘Stay long!’ ”
Posted May 14, 2014
Pictured: Seiji Ozawa leads the New Japan Philharmonic on May 8, 2014. Photo courtesy Boston Symphony Orchestra
