Review: Ozawa's Masterful German Masterworks

This 15-CD Decca set gives Ozawa (with the excellent Saito Kinen Orchestra) the opportunity to impress us in the sort of German repertoire for which he isn't traditionally known: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner--and impress us he does. For those interested in the artistic journey of one of our major conductors, this box will prove both rewarding and fascinating.

[nobodynothing]

Can we all just appreciate the fact that Dave is so consistent and plentiful with his uploads? Keep up the masterful work Boss.

[classicalduck]

I couldn't agree more. I heard Ozawa several times during his last season in San Francisco when I was a student there. Then, much later, I attended the opening night concert of the 1990 Edinburgh Festival, where he conducted the Saito Kinen Orchestra in its earliest season. The first half was Rostropovich playing the Dvořák Concerto; I had wanted to hear Slava years (I had seen him conduct "Пиковая дама" in San Francisco, but really wanted to hear him play), and it was very fine indeed. I looked at the program to see what was after intermission. "Ho-hum, " I thought. "Another Brahms First."
Best damn Brahms First I've ever heard, on record or off. We've now lost one of the greats.

[RichardGreen]

When I was in college, I had a friend who was a sub for the BSO. He respected exactly two conductors: Bernstein and Ozawa. He said Ozawa had the best pair of ears on the planet.

[dmntuba]

I will never forget in a interview of Ozawa by Charlie Rose he was ask, " If knew you were going to die and you could conduct one last work, what would it be?"
Ozawa answered, St. Matthew Passion.

[Don-mdwn]

Just listened to a new Ozawa acquisition last night that I enjoyed very much - 20th Century Bach Transcriptions with the BSO. Transcriptions by Stokowski, Saito, Webern, Schoenberg and Stravinsky.

[johnmontanari]

Ozawa could never catch a break from the Boston critics (don't get me started on Boston critics!), who would positively fawn over guest conductors like Tennstedt and Masur by way of unsubtle comparison. And oh, did they love it when Levine showed up (when he actually showed up) to do lots of swell Schoenberg, Carter, Wuorinen, yech-cetera. Well, Ozawa outlasted them all, got a lovely concert hall at Tanglewood named after him, and is still making splendid music. I heard him do an excellent Bruckner 7 at the Philharmonie with the Martin 7 Winds as a nicely bitter aperitif. Thanks for giving the Maestro some love!

[william-michaelcostello]

Ozawa will love this review. He had to fight his whole life against prejudice. When a young German conductor asked me in 1975 how a Japanese conductor could understand German music I answered, when Karajan believed that Ozawa could understand German music then Ozawa understands German music. The schmuck never spoke to me again.

[luciodemeio]

Ozawa got better and better as he grew older. His Beethoven is great (The Eroica superb, the Funeral March stands out, the 5th also excellent - I have troubles finding the 6th, but I can imagine how it sounds) and the Saito Kinen Orchestra is a top-class ensemble. If I may, let me point out the Fantasia op. 80 with Saito Kinen and Martha Argherich, a live performance, thrilling and really overwhelming.

[shostakovich]

I agree, Ozawa's Bruckner is wonderful. The BPO live Bruckner box, recently released on the orchestra's own label, contained a performance of the first by Ozawa that is simply the best I've ever heard.

[ewmbr]

Thank you, Dave, for bringing this treasure to my/our attention. Your video brings back a treasured memory of Seiji Ozawa conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, with me as a 17-year old among the audience. I distinctly remember his Beethoven 7th, which the orchestra played as if their lives depended on it. Before the intermission, Ozawa led them in Ives' Central Park in the Dark: during the piece he left the rostrum to step among the winds and percussion section in order to conduct them (Ives was Terra Incognita back then). Meanwhile the concert master that evening, Jo Juda, stood and gave the beat to his string colleagues with his bow, until Ozawa began stepping backward through the string section and onto the rostrum with amazing agility, all the while conducting, to bring the piece to its conclusion. Of course, he was a young conductor then. At the end of that concert the roof came off the Concertgebouw, with an electrified audience bursting into rapturous ovations. Ozawa's German Masterworks box is the reminder that precious treasures are not only, and, in some instances such as this one, never, found in one's own yard. Great stuff does happen in what we tend to call, and misperceive, and thus underappreciate as, " peripheries" . Yet these teach us -me, for one - that Great Musicmaking happens in places everywhere, if one cares to listen. Thanks again for "unearthing" this box. I just ordered it. It will take some weeks to arrive. Yet: really good stuff is worth the wait, however long it takes. The reward will be marvelous and very rich. The rest is immense gratitude for the great artist Ozawa is. A treasure.

[jdistler]

Thanks Dave! Glad that you mentioned Ozawa's New Philharmonia Philips Beethoven Ninth, which I've always considered one of the most overlooked and underrated versions out there, and it's gorgeously recorded too.

[GastonBulbous]

Thanks for reviewing this, Dave! I remember wishing out loud recently for an Ozawa with Saito Kinen box. I had no idea Italian Decca had done this — and only $44 on Amazon! I have never hit the buy button so quickly!

[richardwilliams]

Ozawa is amazing! I once saw him conduct the San Francisco Symphony at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco an Ives Symphony without a score !!!

[joetucker]

Wow I had no idea this box existed! Thank you for sharing this with all of us. Some of these Italian Decca compilations are great for filling in the gaps. I've been enjoying the Colin Davis "Symphonies" box for a while now.

[lewtaratua]

I think Ozawa’s music comes from not only his head but also from his body or from his whole himself. Music flows physically and naturally. No over-thinking-nonsense. Only more passionately so in his later years. Great, I don’t know. Deep, I’m not sure. Likable, Yes, very much so. My impression.

[jnc]

Dave, your discussions tend to bring back memories. Ozawa is the only famous conductor I have met when I was a senior in high school. Actually, nearly colliding with him is a better description. I was getting on an elevator to go down as he was getting off to go to his room at the Harvard Club in Boston. He just kind of grunted and walked on. The staff said that he would come to rest there before conducting. This was 1988 when his Philips Mahler 2nd was just out and on the shelf at Tower Records. You mention in your Mahler 2 video that his Sony recording is better than the earlier. But, from that video I have the Mehta on Decca and the Blomstedt, and as of yesterday (4/15/22) your favorite with Bernstein. Well, maybe I should get Ozawa's second Mahler second anyway. I need at least one more...right?

[michaelmurray]

Thanks for sharing this. A very fine and inexpensive set. Incidentally do you know how many CDs you actually have??

[joshgrumiaux]

So basically there's nothing that Ozawa couldn't do well!