Seiji Ozawa Conductor

摘要

A tough game of rugby football put an end to the hopes that a young Japanese boy would become a concert pianist. Seiji Ozawa, then 15, was mad about the game but severely damaged his hand in a scrum. When his piano teacher suggested he might think of conducting instead, he had never even seen a symphony orchestra, live or on television. His parents were living in Japanese-occupied Manchuria when Seiji was born, on 1st September 1935, and when he was six they came to live in a Tokyo suburb. His mother had given his older brother an accordion which sparked his interest in music and he began piano lessons at ten. There was no piano at home but you can see, in a Classic Talk TV interview [www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXg9m2X0ZrY], the old Yamaha upright that his brothers trundled in a handcart from a distant relative's - a two-day trek!