Seiji Ozawa's First Recording

That young conductor on the left above bears little resemblance to the wizened 88-year-old Seiji Ozawa who died this week. He was 29 at the time and making his first recording.

The resulting readings of Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn concertos were typically crisp, with fine balances and sharp articulation, a portent of things to come from this prodigy.

The young Seiji Ozawa

He was matched in this 1965 recording by the 25-year-old violin virtuoso Erick Friedman. A protégé of Jascha Heifetz, Friedman (1939-2004) was a relative veteran of the recording studios, having made several earlier discs.

Ozawa had already achieved some renown at the time. He was the music director of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony, and had just been named as the music director of the Toronto Symphony. He would take over the Boston Symphony in 1973, remaining there for 29 years.

Here's Harris Goldsmith of High Fidelity on this performance: "Erick Friedman plays very well indeed, but what establishes this disc on a rarefied plane is Ozawa’s absolutely brilliant work. It is particularly instructive to find how such a rudimentary (one would have thought) orchestral backdrop as that of the Tchaikovsky takes on logical significance when the rhythm is held firmly, when important instrumental voices are brought out structurally, and when tutti passages are played with accuracy and judicious balance."

Erick Friedman

Goldsmith on the soloist: "Friedman rises mightily to the challenge, phrasing with fine intelligence and control." Let me add that the performance by the London Symphony is beyond reproach.

The recording was made in Walthamstow Assembly Hall by Decca-London engineers for RCA Victor. The sound is excellent. The disc is a tribute to all involved.

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