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GREAT PERFORMANCES: Given the current state of global affairs, what significance do you feel this year's concert will have?
Seiji Ozawa: The day after September 11, I felt, along with most of the world, a great sense of despair. I questioned what good it was to be a musician at this time. It seemed irrelevant and perhaps futile. But as time went on and I returned to Boston to open the Boston Symphony season, I started to feel differently. I began to realize that in a small way, music could make a difference. The audiences seemed extraordinarily appreciative, curious, attentive. I felt that we, the musicians, were very connected to those in Symphony Hall. There was a wonderful sense of community, of wholeness. I am very grateful that I am a musician, that this is my life. I thank God for it.
GP: Did you select all the music for the New Year's Day concert?
SO: No. I ... worked out the program with the "Professors of the Vienna Philharmonic," [and Strauss historian Franz Mailer was particularly helpful in this regard]. They have a fantastic knowledge of this repertoire and it was very much a collaboration.
GP: Since the concert is restricted almost exclusively to the music of the Strauss family, how do you as a conductor go about making an interesting, balanced program?
SO: I think it's a question of pacing, rhythm, following a waltz with a polka and vice versa.
GP: How does the order of the pieces determine and shape the evening?
SO: I hope the order will flow nicely, like dance itself, and keep everyone's interest in one wonderful, long line.
GP: Will this year's New Year's concert be particularly special to you, given the fact that you will soon be the music director of the Vienna State Opera?
SO: Of course it will. I have been coming to Vienna to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic for over 35 years and this is a great moment for me. It's a great honor in and of itself. Add to it the fact that Vienna is my new musical home -- well, it's very exciting and although familiar, very new and fresh for me.
GP: Why did you decide to make the switch to conducting for the opera?
SO: I have always loved opera. You know, if you just
do [the] symphonic repertoire, you miss almost all [of] Puccini['s
works], some of the greatest Mozart, Verdi, [and] Strauss [compositions].
I can't imagine not tasting this music, it's so rich, so magnificent.
I feel so lucky to have this new chapter in my life.
GP: As you look to 2002, what do you hope to bring to the Vienna State Opera as music director?
SO: It's such a great and noble institution. There is a real feeling of tradition, as there is with the Boston Symphony. I look forward to working closely with Ioan Holender [the executive director of the Vienna State Opera] and making it a vital, exciting house.
GP: After 29 years with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, what is the most important lesson you will take from that experience?
SO: That's difficult. There have been so many experiences, so many friendships, so much wonderful music. I suppose in the end I've learned that music is everyday work. That this kind of art is practiced and lived every day of your life. That's it.
GP: Having been a guest conductor for so many of the world's great orchestras, what common traits, if any, have you seen in the world's great musicians?
SO: I think it's a sense of tremendous commitment and dedication that I see among the world's greatest musicians. For instance, with my dear, dear friend, Mstislav Rostropovich, you can't imagine how much he practices, all the time, constantly! [It's] amazing, that kind of hard work and dedication.
Text of an e-mail interview with Seiji Ozawa. (Photos of Mr. Ozawa by Costa Manos [top] and Christian Steiner [left], courtesy of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.)
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