This Blu-ray sampler with carefully selected concerts accompanies Seiji Ozawa's impressive career over 3 decades. Seiji Ozawa was not only Japan’s best-known conductor but also the founder of the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, which in 2015 was renamed the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. Special feature included in this edition from Matsumoto: on the occasion of Maestro Ozawa’s 80th birthday, Martha Argerich and Matthias Goerne joined the orchestra to perform Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Op. 80, plus a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ - a deeply emotional moment for the Maestro!

This well recorded disc from 1985 delivers impressive readings of both of these works. Mullova takes a very individual view of these concertos and has the technical assurance to communicate her view with compelling certainty.
The Tchaikovsky concerto is played in the full uncut version that was written by the composer. This is now becoming more common but in 1985 was still unusual enough to warrant comment. By playing the notes as Tchaikovsky had intended Mullova signals a very serious intent which she carries out throughout these two concertos.

Seiji Ozawa had a fondness for more modern compositions; his efforts on this 1982 release showcase his versatility by recording one of the finest performances of The Four Seasons in history, and the standard by which many future recordings would come to be judged. With over 500,000 albums sold since its release, it’s no wonder that this recording would be chosen as one of the initial four vinyl releases by Craft Recordings. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl and pressed by Optimal in Germany.

Krystian Zimerman is getting better as he gets older. He used to be one of a half-dozen great young pianists, a brilliant virtuoso with tremendous expressivity, enormous soul, and a habit of making even fewer recordings than Argerich or Pollini. Over the years of ever-fewer recordings, he's grown into an astounding virtuoso and the emotional power of his interpretations have grown with his technique.

Warhorses, strong in staying power, are rarely noted also for finesse; and much the same is true of their musical counterparts. Lalo's Symphonie espagnole, however, is something of an exception by reason of its crystalline scoring and its grace; and this particular warhorse, now more than a century old, seems to be well into its second wind. It was written for the Spanish virtuoso Sarasate, whose own showily brilliant but superficial Zigeunerweisen here makes a logical, if all too short, coupling.

It is no secret that there are quite a few excellent recordings of the Five Beethoven Piano Concertos available – especially Brendel (both sets with Chicago and Vienna), Kempff, Perahia, Schiff, the list goes on. However, what I find particularly stunning about Rudolf Serkin's readings of the Beethoven Concertos is the pure human element he somehow employs in his playing and at the same time his ability to transcend that same element.

Anne-Sophie Mutter's Bartók Second is clearly one of the best around. The first movement is a difficult piece to bring off, if only because the beginning is so simple and tuneful compared to later developments. Mutter proves an excellent guide to the music's ongoing development, never losing site of that folk-like opening and always returning to it as if to say, "See, it was there all along!"

Swan Lake was the first of Tchaikovsky's three great ballets– works which added a new level of depth and sophistication to what had been a purely superficial art form. Today the music is so well-known and popular that it's impossible to comprehend the difficulties the composer experienced at early performances. Audiences found the music "too symphonic," and the dancers were put off by the prominence given to the orchestra which, they felt, distracted ballet fans from the action on stage. Of course, all of these supposed "defects" are precisely what we admire about the music today, and this elegant but exciting performance reveals the music in all of its glory.

This well recorded disc from 1987 delivers truly exciting performances of all three works in typically crisp manner by Zimerman. Ozawa and the Boston orchestra give excellent support. The emphasis here is on excitement largely created by fast speeds delivered with clarity. The more gentler parts of all three works are played with due regard to sensitivity but there is no denying that in these recordings these works are seen as primarily as virtuoso display works and that is what we are given.

Seiji Ozawa conducts the most sensitive and emotional performance of Ravel I have ever experienced. I bought the record 30 years ago and nearly cried hearing it on CD all these years later. If you have not heard this, you have never heard Ravel.

Ozawa's interpretation of The Planets is assuredly not in the Boult tradition, but brings a fresh approach to Holst's sole excursion into extravagance. Tempos are not those to which we are accustomed: ''Mars'' brings war at record speed and ''Mercury'' is more leisurely winged messenger than usual. Both ''Venus'' and ''Jupiter'' are presented more conventionally and are finely played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ozawa misses some of the tenor of ''Saturn'', seeming to treat it more as an exercise in sonorities, but is exhilarating in ''Uranus'', where the timpanist has a field day.

45 years after his debut Philips recording of Beethoven’s 9th, Seiji Ozawa returns to this epic masterpiece. The Mito Chamber Orchestra features many international star players including Radek Baborák (horn), Ricardo Morales (clarinet) and Philippe Tondre (oboe). The German baritone Markus Eiche leads a quartet of leading Japanese soloists and the Tokyo Opera Singers in a fascinating performance on a chamber orchestra scale.