Seiji Ozawa

Re "World-Class Welcome Home for Ozawa" (Sept. 7): Readers need to be informed of the facts, which Teresa Watanabe's article does not do. Watanabe conveys that Seiji Ozawa returned to Japan for the first time in 30 years. She also stresses that this is the first "world-class classical music festival" in Japan. First, Ozawa has been music director and conductor of the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo since 1972. He has been a national hero for decades, which is why he has both the corporate support to start the Saito Kinen Orchestra and the admiration of the Empress of Japan.

The World Series, which begins Wednesday at Fenway Park, will pit the Boston Red Sox against the St. Louis Cardinals in a battle for the Major League Baseball championship. The on-the-field rivalry has inspired a face-off off the field -- between the two cities' major orchestras. In a video released online Wednesday, brass musicians from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony engage in a humorous musical showdown that includes an appearance by legendary conductor Seiji Ozawa, who holds the title of music director laureate for the Boston orchestra.

Can passion be taught? Conductor Seiji Ozawa is trying to find out with a novel program in his homeland aimed at drawing young Japanese musicians out of their shells. He is trying to instill emotion in their performance of Western classical music by inspiration, or at least osmosis, using the gusto of opera. Ozawa, the music director of the Boston Symphony, has set up an institute to teach young musicians to play Mozart's great operas.

Amid a sea of musicians all in white, Seiji Ozawa said goodbye to the Boston Symphony at the Tanglewood Festival in the Berkshires on a warm afternoon last Sunday. Thursday night, it was Kurt Masur's turn to part with his New York Philharmonic audience, at a 75th birthday gala sponsored by the Lincoln Center Festival and given in a colorfully decorated Avery Fisher Hall.

Concerning your splendid article on Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. ("Where Music's in the Air," March 16) in Traveling in Style magazine, I would like to say there is a way to enjoy a concert at Tanglewood without making reservations. On the afternoon before a concert, the conductor holds a dress rehearsal, and the public may attend for a greatly reduced price. The last time I attended, my family and I picnicked right in the music shed, out of the sun. During the playing of Mahler's Third Symphony, Seiji Ozawa, the music director, interrupted the flow of music perhaps twice; otherwise, it was exactly as was to be heard that night.

"Ozawa." Sony. $29.95. This portrait of Boston Symphony Orchestra music director Seiji Ozawa, filmed by Albert and David Maysles, aired last year on PBS' "Great Performances." The 60-minute biography includes some musical excerpts--most important, a cherishable sequence of Ozawa and Rudolf Serkin studying, rehearsing, performing and rejoicing in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2--and an instructive look at how Ozawa teaches and encourages young conductors.

The World Series, which begins Wednesday at Fenway Park, will pit the Boston Red Sox against the St. Louis Cardinals in a battle for the Major League Baseball championship. The on-the-field rivalry has inspired a face-off off the field -- between the two cities' major orchestras. In a video released online Wednesday, brass musicians from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony engage in a humorous musical showdown that includes an appearance by legendary conductor Seiji Ozawa, who holds the title of music director laureate for the Boston orchestra.

Among the music being championed these days by Boston Symphony by Seiji Ozawa is Elliot Goldenthal's new "Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio," a work commissioned by the Pacific Symphony. The orchestra premiered it last April under Carl St.Clair, who was a Boston Symphony assistant conductor before he came to Orange County. Ozawa will lead the BSO in performances of the work--which requires a large orchestra, chorus and two vocal soloists--in Boston, New York and Washington in April.

For most of his long life, Walter Cronkite wasn't big on celebrating New Year's. "This hype that New Year's Eve has always had--I could never quite get on board with it," the veteran newsman was saying last week. "You get all set up for that big party, and then it's kind of a disappointment." He paused a moment, thinking back in amusement. "You know, up to the time I was 10, Halloween was the same way," he said. "You planned all these naughty tricks, and then it kind of fell apart."

Around the music world, it's a season of farewells. Seiji Ozawa is leaving the Boston Symphony Orchestra next spring after more than a quarter-century as its head, Christoph von Dohnanyi is saying goodbye to the Cleveland Orchestra and Kurt Masur to the New York Philharmonic, all part of a gigantic shift in leadership at four of the traditional Big Five orchestras in the United States. Wolfgang Sawallisch departs the Philadelphia Orchestra after the 2002-03 season.

Seiji Ozawa has been music director of the venerable Boston Symphony Orchestra for a record 28 years. After next season he moves on to head the Vienna State Opera. He was once short-listed for the post of music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. He is, in other words, one of the half-dozen most prominent conductors on the scene today.

After ushering in the millennium with a sparkling feast for the eyes, the Eiffel Tower continued the party Friday with a treat for the ears--an extravaganza concert of classical favorites with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Tens of thousands of Parisians spread over the Champs de Mars, lounging on picnic blankets, sipping wine and watching the musicians on stage under the famed tower, gently lit for the occasion.

Can passion be taught? Conductor Seiji Ozawa is trying to find out with a novel program in his homeland aimed at drawing young Japanese musicians out of their shells. He is trying to instill emotion in their performance of Western classical music by inspiration, or at least osmosis, using the gusto of opera. Ozawa, the music director of the Boston Symphony, has set up an institute to teach young musicians to play Mozart's great operas.

Concerning your splendid article on Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. ("Where Music's in the Air," March 16) in Traveling in Style magazine, I would like to say there is a way to enjoy a concert at Tanglewood without making reservations. On the afternoon before a concert, the conductor holds a dress rehearsal, and the public may attend for a greatly reduced price. The last time I attended, my family and I picnicked right in the music shed, out of the sun. During the playing of Mahler's Third Symphony, Seiji Ozawa, the music director, interrupted the flow of music perhaps twice; otherwise, it was exactly as was to be heard that night.

In 1962, maestro Seiji Ozawa walked onstage to conduct Japan's NHK Symphony and found rows of empty seats. The members found the then-27-year-old too brash and demanding, and they boycotted him. But 30 years later this past weekend, Ozawa came home to stage his native country's first world-class classical music festival. Not only were all of his orchestra members present, so were the emperor and empress of Japan--just two fans among an adoring opening night audience of more than 2,000.

Almost 50 years ago in the Nazi "model" concentration camp Terezin in Czechoslovakia, artists and composers were permitted to paint, draw, write and lecture. One of the works created there, Pavel Haas' "Study for String Orchestra," survived, even though its composer did not. Although Haas probably knew he and almost everyone else at the camp were doomed, he wrote a piece that is celebrated today for being full of life.

"Eine Alpensinfonie," which Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra paraded at the Cerritos Center on Thursday night, is the great white elephant of Richard Strauss' tone poems. It slogs, jogs, soars and thumps for 50 leisurely minutes, delivering detailed facsimiles of Alpine picture-postcards. It stumbles and bumbles in alternate attempts at being super-heroic and suavely lyrical. It is unabashedly sentimental, ceaselessly ponderous and stubbornly indulgent.