The conductor and former music director of the Vienna State Opera Seiji Ozawa is dead. One of his former orchestras has now honored him as a “musical genius”. The “hundred thousand volt conductor” was 88 years old.
Austria was his adopted home; he died at home in Tokyo: Seiji Ozawa, the world-class conductor and composer. As his management announced today, he died of heart failure on February 6th at the age of 88.
Ozawa actually wanted to become a pianist. But after a hand injury while playing rugby, he concentrated on studying conducting. Already at his first public appearance at the age of 24 with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, he was celebrated as a great talent. In the years that followed, Ozawa won many awards and competitions.
The Japanese was discovered and promoted by Leonard Bernstein in New York. Herbert von Karajan then brought him to Berlin as his assistant. It wasn’t an easy path, because for a long time he was confronted with the prejudice that, as a Japanese, he could “only have learned” the European classics and could never “understand them with his soul.”
Maestro Ozawa conducts his Ongaku-Juku Orchestra in the National Theater in Beijing.
Conductor on three continents
The collaboration with the Vienna Philharmonic began in the 1960s at the Salzburg Festival and lasted over five decades. “Legendary,” the Vienna Philharmonic still says today.
In quick succession, Ozawa became director of orchestras in Chicago, Toronto and San Francisco. From 1970 he directed the renowned Tanglewood classical music festival in the USA. Ozawa is also credited with bringing the Boston Symphony Orchestra to global fame under his 29-year leadership. This honored him as “a musical genius”.
Seiji Ozawa at the traditional Philharmonic Ball at the Vienna State Opera.
Withdrawal due to Cancer disease
Until 2010, Ozawa stood in front of the conductor’s podium at the Vienna State Opera. He was music director there for eight years. However, the composer had to withdraw due to cancer – with the exception of smaller performances in Japan.
Ozawa has often been described as charismatic and electrifying. His nickname: “Hundred Thousand Volt Conductor.”
With information from Wolfgang Vichtl, ARD Studio Vienna.