According to Japan's **February 9**, the famous conductor Seiji Ozawa died at his home in Japan on the 6th of this month at the age of 88.
Seiji Ozawa was born on September 1, 1935 in Shenyang, China, and studied piano since childhood. He has lived in China for nearly six years and has a deep affection for China. The experience of war in his childhood made him understand the value of human goodness. Seiji Ozawa once wrote in his autobiography "Commanding Career", "I am half Chinese and half Japanese."
At the age of 24, Seiji Ozawa won the championship of the International Young Conductor Competition in Besançon, France. In 1961, he began as an associate conductor with the New York Philharmonic. He has served as the director of the Chicago Lavinia Festival, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna State Opera.
In recent years, Seiji Ozawa has rarely appeared on stage due to his illness, but Chinese music fans have been paying close attention to his recent situation. Now that this old Japanese man with a deep connection with China has returned from the crane, we publish an old article here to commemorate this conductor who is full of intellectual curiosity and regards the stage and the audience as his life.
When the 81-year-old Seiji Ozawa could no longer wave his baton, the scene took ......
In early October 2016, Seiji Ozawa and Zubin Mehta conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Thunder and Lightning Polka.
Seiji Ozawa's gray hair rises and falls with the music, his dancing hands precisely grasp the sense of proportion of the work, and his thin back is full of passion. Who would have thought that this old man in his eighties would be suffering from cancer all the time?
With thunderous applause, the 81-year-old Seiji Ozawa trembled onto the stage, and the two sat on the podium with the support of Zubin Mehta. Seiji Ozawa stuck out his tongue mischievously, and the first note of "Thunder and Lightning Polka" was played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and for the next four minutes, he and Zubin Mehta conducted a performance that shook the world.
Due to the deterioration of Ozawa's health in the first half of 2016, Ozawa's arm could no longer be raised, and he could not even hold the baton, but at the moment when he danced his magical and dynamic hands, the soul of ** was already standing in front of us. All this happened in early October 2016 in the Suntory ** Hall in Tokyo.
In 2010, Seiji Ozawa was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and the battle against the disease left him physically exhausted. Even so, he was determined to create operas that shook the world, and to achieve heights that had never been achieved before. ** Later, he returned to conducting in recent years.
In April 2016, he visited the Berlin Philharmonic and Seiji Ozawa Swiss International ** Academy in Europe, and held a number of performances. After returning to Japan, he devoted himself to high-intensity work, and his immune system was further damaged. Seiji Ozawa had to cancel his planned performance at the Tanglewood Festival in the summer of 2016 and issued a statement that "I will try to get back to health as soon as possible so that I can see you as soon as possible."
Just a few months later, when he reappeared on the command platform of Chao Si Dusk, no one would question the infinite energy that erupted from the old man's thin body. He struggled to his feet, trying to move his inflexible arms.
The arms are "talking", and they used to move very well and smoothly. The "timpani tremolo" of "Thunder and Lightning Polka" seems to make people hear the sound of thunder in the distance, and Seiji Ozawa begins to kick his feet hard, and although he cannot raise his hands in an elegant arc, he sometimes clenches and sometimes points into the distance, and leads the music to a climax with enthusiasm and heroism.
When Zubin Mehta handed him the baton, he waved his hand, smiled playfully and innocently like a big child, and even spun around in circles. From the musicians to the audience, everyone followed his conductor and swam in the vast ocean.
Seiji Ozawa's teacher, Master Conductor Akiki, once admonished him, "When you really feel ** in the depths of your heart, your hands will move with you." "He has a detached sense of arm movement, perhaps he learned it from Mingxi. And his extremely keen hearing, amazing **memory**, rich **feeling** and decisive and enthusiastic spirit make him able to make the work full of vitality and strong appeal at that moment, even if he does not have a baton in his hand.
Seiji Ozawa's gray hair rises and falls with the music, his dancing hands precisely grasp the sense of proportion of the work, and his thin back is full of passion. Who would have thought that this old man in his eighties would be suffering from cancer all the time?
I have a stomach full of medicine and antibiotics all over my body, but I'm still happy to be back on stage. It's a bit late to have a second life at the age of 75, but I can't help it, I'll try to keep going. Seiji Ozawa once said this after his comeback.
For a conductor who is full of intellectual curiosity and regards the stage and the audience as his life, only by weaving ** with his own hands and giving life to the ** of live performance can he truly feel the meaning of his existence. If you can't raise your arms, let your hands run, dance, and jump.
81-year-old Seiji Ozawa still lives in a world he loves, firm and persistent.
Now that this old Japanese man is no longer with us, may there still be beautiful notes in heaven to accompany him.
Author: Jiang Fang.
Text: Jiang Fangtu: Information**Editor: Li Ting Responsible Editor: Xing Xiaofang.
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