Conductor Ozawa proves full recovery with 90-minute piece at Carnegie

+

NEW YORK, Dec. 18 Kyodo -
Conductor Seiji Ozawa on Saturday concluded his last of three programs this
week at Carnegie Hall, leading the Saito Kinen Orchestra as part of the New
York concert venue's Japan festival.
Wielding the baton for the night's entire program, Ozawa showed he had made a
full recovery from surgery earlier this year, conducting Britten's ''War
Requiem'' for about 90 minutes without intermission.
The concert was also joined by choir members including those from Matsumoto,
Nagano Prefecture in Japan. The Japanese city hosts music festivals regularly
in the name of the orchestra that started in 1984 on an ad hoc basis by
assembling Ozawa and other musicians trained by cellist and conductor Hideo
Saito.
For the first two programs, the 75-year-old reduced his planned roles at the
JapanNYC festival due to chronic backache and conducted the orchestra only for
the second part of each -- Brahms' Symphony No. 1 on Tuesday and Berlioz's
''Symphonie Fantastique'' on Wednesday.
In his place, conductor Tatsuya Shimono, 40-year-old resident conductor of
Tokyo's Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, led the first half of the programs.
Ozawa was diagnosed in January with an early stage of esophageal cancer. After
undergoing surgery, he significantly limited his concert engagements, partly
resuming conducting only in late July.
He serves as artistic director of Carnegie Hall's first Japan festival, a
two-part citywide event to explore the country's arts and culture featuring
more than 65 performances and exhibitions at the hall and 22 partner venues in
New York.
The first part of the festival will run through December and the second part
will take place in March and April 2011.
==Kyodo
2010-12-19 21:16:36