FAREWELL TO…
Seiji Ozawa
Born 1935 Conductor
Seiji Ozawa will be best remembered not just as the longest-serving music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he was in post for 29 years, but also as the first Japanese conductor to become widely known in the West. With his long, flowing hair, he always cut a distinctive dash on the podium, matched – in his early years, at least – by highly energetic performances of often large-scale, complex works. Born in Shenyang, China, Ozawa studied in Japan before heading to Europe where, in 1959, he made his breakthrough by winning the Besançon conducting competition. Spotted by Charles Munch, he went on to study with or work under several of the great conductors of the era, including Pierre Monteux, Herbert von Karajan and, as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 1961-65, Leonard Bernstein. Music directorships followed at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and, in 1973, Boston SO. On leaving the latter post in 2002, Ozawa took his career in a new direction as music director of the Vienna State Opera, where he championed lesser known operas and also regularly conducted the Vienna Philharmonic. From 2010 onwards, illness restricted him to just a handful of appearances.
Chita Rivera
Born 1933 Singer and actress
Whether adding her wittily sarcastic rejoinders to ‘America’ or bitterly reproaching Maria in ‘A Boy Like That’, Chita Rivera took on the role of Anita in Bernstein’s West Side Story and made it her own. Many have played the part since, but Rivera’s original Broadway performance – still available on disc – still arguably reigns supreme. The daughter of a Puerto Rican clarinettist, the Washington Dc-born Rivera followed graduation from the School of American Ballet in New York with her Broadway debut in 1953, and would go on to perform there in various roles for more than 60 years – ‘I’m unkillable!’, she once joked about her extraordinary longevity. Key to her success was an energetic stage presence that remained with her well into her later years, a phenomenal dancing ability and that sassy, gritty voice that became loved by so many.
Also remembered…
Dutch pianist Rudolf Jansen (b1940) enjoyed a stellar career as a chamber musician and, in particular, Lieder accompanist, performing regularly with the likes of baritone Dietrich Fischer-dieskau and soprano Elly Ameling.
Patrick Ireland (b1923) will be best remembered as the founding violist of the Allegri String Quartet and as the first viola tutor at the Menuhin School, where he guided many of today’s renowned players.