# Reading Murakamis book Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa



## gHeadphone (Mar 30, 2015)

I just picked it up this week. Its a whole book of conversations between Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa on classical music.

There are lots of interesting insights so far for me, I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book so mostly about the music of Brahms and Beethoven as well as Ozawas comparison of working with both Bernstein and Karajan.

There is a particularly interesting interlude in the book where Ozawa talks about his distaste for obsessive record collectors (and i definitely fall into this category). He sees music as a living thing and a recording as only one reflection of a piece of music at a point in time. A friend of mine was visiting yesterday and he is a professional musician and composer whereas I've not performed much in about 8 years or so. He was astonished that this wasn't my immediate instinct. I think I've been so removed from performing that i forgot this way of thinking. My answer to him was that living in Ireland recordings are the best way to hear some of the great pieces and performers, otherwise id be living in musical ignorance, adding to my other types of ignorance ;-). 
I do need to think about this point further. 

Anybody else have an opinion on this, or anything else from the book?


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## Myriadi (Mar 6, 2016)

Thank you for alerting me to the existence of the book. I like quite a few of Murakami's novels. His jazz music essays have been somewhat meh to me, but I've got high hopes for this one.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

I don't agree either with Ozawa or with your musician friend. Ozawa's entitled to his own views but the fact that he finds it necessary to look down on those who see things differently doesn't say much for him (though it's true that he won't have had the liveliest of musical experiences if he's spent a lot of time listening to his own recordings). As for listening to recordings versus performing oneself: well, I'm a decent amateur pianist but there are huge swathes of the repertoire that I'll never have the technique to play, besides which many of those of us who aren't professionals have a whole lot of other stuff which has to take higher priority than practising even that which we _can_ play, at least for some of the time.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

gHeadphone said:


> Anybody else have an opinion on this, or anything else from the book?


I'd like to read the book. Ozawa's comments understood, but many live in isolation without opportunites to experience the living art form. And many others miss out because we're toiling away at our mundane jobs while the fortunate ones like Ozawa are living and breathing the music in their cherished world. I can't even get to the local chamber music concerts on Saturday night because I'm working.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Isn't a live performance likewise only a single reflection of a piece of music at a single point in time? The best way to understand music then, would be to contemplate as many of these single reflections as possible - both live and on recordings.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I am also reading this book, and I got an entirely different message from that interlude about record collecting. Ozawa seemed to be against collecting CDs/albums/LPs as material items. They are meant to be played and enjoyed, not just sit on a shelf. A lot of the people on Talk Classical do buy a lot of CDs, but they also listen to most of them, and Ozawa is cool with that.

It's interesting to hear the perspectives on music and performing in this book. I am not even on page 100 yet, and already there have been fascinating discussions of what a conductor does, how rehearsals are used by different conductors, and the type of editing done to a live performance for a CD. I would highly recommend the book for anyone reading this post.


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

I found this book in perfect condition at a used bookstore in western Massachusetts. I was on a summer vacation that included Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts, so this was perfect vacation reading. It's lots of fun and reads easily, I wished it went on longer. Yes, it does provide a lot of insights into how musicians work together and how they think. The author/interviewer's observations are as interesting as Ozawa's sometimes. Ozawa's most frequent comment throughout the book was "Yes, that's true" in response to perceptive observations from Murakami.

Speaking about recordings, the setup of the book is that in most chapters the two of them listen to a different recording by other musicians (Serkin, Bernstein, others) and critique it together. This leads to Ozawa relating his views on the music and personal experiences he had working with these and other musicians.


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## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

True a recording can be considered a *historic* event, Yet some records go in the thousands. There must be some who feel it is worth the price. 
I picked up a Leonid Kogan recording of Shostakovic VC, on a Supraphon label, Giants Of The Violin, paid $60. there is one copy on the Inet, at $1K+. 
I do not collect for any other reason that finding stellar , highly refined performances. 
I do not attend concerts, so all my music allowance goes into cds. 
Concerts are now like $50+ when you add in parking. 
So at $10+ fora cd, I can buy 5 and feel pretty good about the purchase as I am getting 5 concerts for the price of 1. 
Plus the local live may only offer 1 work i am interested in, the other not at all. Concerts would never work out for me, Cds are the only method for me to enjoy music, And not MP3/digital downloads, etc. 
Recorded Music has to be experienced on a stereo system. 
Preferably a good french tube amp/or a good SS amp+tube preamp/SEAS speakers. 
NO headphones.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

No headphones?! 

I read this a few months ago. It's a great book that I would highly recommend to any lover of classical music. Murakami himself is deeply insightful about this music. The epilogue of the book is written by maestro Ozawa, and there's a great quote where he says something along the lines of "I have a lot of friends who are into music, but Haruki takes it far beyond the realm of sanity". Which is something that a lot of us can relate to. :lol:


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

I would probably be more interested in this book if I enjoyed Ozawa's conducting. However, I place him with the few other "popular/successful" conductors such as Barenboim & Zubin Mehta as having that unique ability to suck almost all life out of their recordings. I think their conducting is therapy for insomnia. So, pass on this book, but I'm glad you are enjoying it.

V


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

It is interesting to me to read some details from this book. Some excerpts were printed in one of our newspapers a couple of years ago and they seemed to add up to little more than Murakami expounding some view of his and Ozawa saying "uh ha" occasionally! Good to know there is more in it. I do quite like Murakami's strange novels. Many of them have a classical piece as a sort of theme running through them.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Varick said:


> I would probably be more interested in this book if I enjoyed Ozawa's conducting. However, I place him with the few other "popular/successful" conductors such as Barenboim & Zubin Mehta as having that unique ability to suck almost all life out of their recordings. I think their conducting is therapy for insomnia. So, pass on this book, but I'm glad you are enjoying it.
> 
> V


 As far as I am concerned , all three conductors, Ozawa, Barenboim and Mehta have made numerous superb recordings which are anything but a snoozefest . Even if you disagree with their interpretation of this or that work , they certainly don't "suck the life out of the music ". Far from it .


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## Tikoo Tuba (Oct 15, 2018)

I live in isolation , content with my memories of music once heard . I will emerge to new experience when I get around to it . I'm not fond of recordings . Been there , done that . I play music in the kitchen to no one . To self ? no one


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

superhorn said:


> As far as I am concerned , all three conductors, Ozawa, Barenboim and Mehta have made numerous superb recordings which are anything but a snoozefest . Even if you disagree with their interpretation of this or that work , they certainly don't "suck the life out of the music ". Far from it .


Agreed.

Ozawa made terrific recordings for RCA back in the 60s - as exciting as anything out there. His Ravel on DG is top notch as is the Mahler cycle on Phillips. 
Barenboim? Cycles of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms are great stuff. He's the only conductor to have breathed life into Furtwangler's sprawling 2nd. I even find his early Elgar symphonies to be quite thrilling.
Mehta - so many top-notch recordings. Holst Planets, Mahler galore, Star Wars(!), and his Schmidt 4th is still the one to beat. Many, many great opera recordings.

Now it is true that all three made duds - but name a conductor who hasn't! And Ozawa and Mehta seemed to have burned out some time ago. Ozawa has been very ill. Barenboim going strong. Mehta is really old, too, but still does some fine work - mostly in Germany. Some of his recent concerts with Berlin Phil have been wonderful. Get a copy of Ozawa's Scheherazade or Shostakovich 5th. Try Mehta's Mahler 3rd. Barenboim's Schumann 2nd. No sleep inducing conducting among them.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Mehta is part of an amalgam of conductors that I have formed, for some reason, an association with mediocrity, alongside Lorin Maazel, Erich Leinsdorf, and Eugene Ormandy. Don’t ask why, my brain just does these things. I know it’s unfair and I’m sure I will reevaluate each in due time


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm surprised Ozawa is still ticking. I haven't read the book but it sounds interesting. Honestly, before the internet I was inclined to buy recordings by conductors such as Mehta, Ormandy, Maazel, and Ozawa. They're well known names in America. Back in the day I never heard of Wand, Berglund, Gielen, Jochum, Salonen, Boulez, and many others.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

mbhaub said:


> Agreed. Ozawa made terrific recordings for RCA back in the 60s - as exciting as anything out there. His Ravel on DG is top notch as is the Mahler cycle on Phillips.


My introduction to the symphony orchestra concert was Seiji Ozawa leading the Toronto Symphony in 1965 at Massey Hall, before he become regular conductor. I still have exciting memories. The program included a Beethoven overture, Faure's Ballade with Ozawa's then-wife as piano soloist, and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Ozawa's verve and conducting style were new and made a big impression, and I still remember him cueing each tubular bell note in the finale. Reading Murakami's book I was astonished at the author's recordings-based knowledge of classical music. He gets into the conducting process with Ozawa; I'd recommend the book for anyone who's led or played in an orchestra.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Roger Knox said:


> My introduction to the symphony orchestra concert was Seiji Ozawa leading the Toronto Symphony in 1965 at Massey Hall, before he become regular conductor. I still have exciting memories. The program included a Beethoven overture, Faure's Ballade with Ozawa's then-wife as piano soloist, and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Ozawa's verve and conducting style were new and made a big impression, and I still remember him cueing each tubular bell note in the finale. Reading Murakami's book I was astonished at the author's recordings-based knowledge of classical music. He gets into the conducting process with Ozawa; I'd recommend the book for anyone who's led or played in an orchestra.


In the book, Ozawa describes being criticized by Karajan when the Austrian maestro witnessed him doing just what you describe, cueing in individual instrumental parts. According to Karajan, that is not the job of the conductor. Karajan thought him too detail-oriented at this stage. (Perhaps this might speak to differences in their individual conducting styles.) Anyway, Ozawa cited that aside from his early teacher, maestro Saito, his two biggest influences were Karajan and Bernstein, both of whom he spent a good deal of time working with. Interestingly, he said that he didn't learn half as much as he'd wanted to in his days with Bernstein because his English at the time was atrocious and he could hardly understand a word that Bernstein said. :lol:

Despite (& this is something Murakami brings up in the book) Ozawa's reputation as a champion of French music, his biggest passion in music was the German classics, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler. There is a good deal of conversation on each of these three composers in the book.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

As far as I am concerned, Mehta is anything but a mediocrity whether you like his conducting or not ,
and I see no evidence of him having "burned out ". His recordings of Richard Strauss symphonic poems , Bruckner and Mahler symphonies, operas by Verdi and Puccini , and other composers are the work of a consummate master of the art of conducting .
Unfortunately, Mehta got a bum rap in the 60s and 70s as a supposed shallow "glamor boy " of the podium, all flash and no substance. But he built the relatively minor league Los Angeles Philharmonic into one of the finest orchestras in the world , got a recording contract with Decca records, made acclaimed international tours with them , championed music by important contemporary composer ( more so than many other famous conductors ! ) , and orchestral musicians in all of the world class orchestras he has conducted have nothing but respect and admiration for his conducting ability .


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

superhorn said:


> As far as I am concerned, Mehta is anything but a mediocrity ... orchestral musicians in all of the world class orchestras he has conducted have nothing but respect and admiration for his conducting ability .


Having played the double bass, I've always got a lift from a video of Mehta playing the instrument in Schubert's Trout Quintet with some very big guys. He was no Koussevitzky, but it shows him in a different light. And he broke some significant barriers.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Well, that's what makes a ball game. Different strokes for different folks. I would take an Ozawa recording over Barenboim, and a Barenboim over Mehta. I think Mehta also sucked out most of the prestige that the NY Phil once had. Mazur certainly didn't help with much of that but Maazel brought some of that back. I have a few recordings from each of these three and every once in a while I try to listen to them with new ears and every time, I have to turn them off. Then I put on someone else conducting the same piece and it's just night and day.

To each his own.

V


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Coincidentally, I saw this in a used bookstore last week. I browsed through it a bit, and it did look interesting. I may need to go back and pick it up since unlike most things I didn't buy this has stayed with me. It did seem more Murakami than Ozawa in the bits I read, which is a shame. I did see the obsessive record collector comments and thought they were pretty funny since Murakami obviously falls into that group.


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