Berliner Philharmoniker Releases Homage to Seiji Ozawa

"The Seiji Ozawa Edition" features unreleased radio recordings

The Berliner Philharmoniker will release a new hardcover edition to honor the Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, who died on February 6, 2024. The edition includes a number of previously unreleased recordings of Ozawa conducting the orchestra, especially from the period 1979-1996.

Ozawa made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1966, and a long and fruitful collaboration followed — which culminated in Ozawa being made an honorary member of the orchestra in 2016. He held a number of distinctions, including the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, honorary doctorates from Harvard University and the Sorbonne, the Japanese Order of Culture, and the Praemium Imperiale.

The discs cover Ozawa's interpretations of works by Bartók, Beethoven, Berlioz, Bruch, Bruckner, Haydn, Hindemith, Mahler, Ravel, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner. Alongside the CDs, a blu-ray disc is included, with recordings of Ozawa's last concerts with the orchestra between 2009 and 2016.

The edition's hardcover book also contains a great deal of material from those who were personally close to Ozawa. This includes articles by Ozawa’s daughter Seira, as well as the writer Haruki Murakami, who was one of Ozawa's close friends. The articles are accompanied by photos taken by ex-Berliner Philharmoniker violinist Gustav Zimmermann.

You can listen to a sample recording here and the full edition is released today, October 18, 2024.