<h1 class="ql-align-center" >: What is the conductor? </h1>
Speaking of conducting, some people may not understand its role, and feel that individuals can stand on it, but it is useless to beat with the music.
For example, people often question Zhouzhou, is he conducting the orchestra, or is the orchestra conducting him?
In fact, Zhouzhou is an inspirational legend, and his focus is not on command.
Boats
In order to understand the role of conducting, the editor went to see a concert the night before.
The feeling is that if there is no conductor, dozens of people are really not easy to unify, everyone looks at the score in front of them, how to make the perfect coordination between the various instruments? How to ensure the perfect start, abort, extension, speed and slowness of the whole band? Can't we all look at each other and then communicate?
This requires a commander-in-chief, and everyone looks at his baton and is OK.
The level of the conductor determines the level of the orchestra and the style of the music, just like the head of a construction team, who does not play the piano himself, but controls the quality of the project.
Chinese symphonies started late, and the greatest influence on this field was the Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa. It was he who brought Western music to China, and it was he who brought famous Chinese songs such as "Two Springs and The Moon" to the world.
Seiji Ozawa
And he has attracted much attention, in addition to his style, his achievements, his friendship and contribution to China, but also his lineage.
His father was one of the supporters behind the Events of September 18.
<h1 class="ql-align-center" > second, a world conductor born in China</h1>
Ozawa was born in 1935 in Fengtian (Shenyang), a puppet Manchuria, where his father was already the head of the Changchun branch of the Manchurian Youth League.
This is a right-wing organization advocating "Manchu-Mongolian independence" that spreads aggressive remarks in Manchuria, influences upper-class political leaders in Japan, and incites the expansion of public opinion.
They cooperated with the Kwantung Army and plotted the September 18 Incident, and this kind of aggressor who did not hold a gun committed no less crime than the Kwantung Army.
The "sign" in Ozawa's name is the "sign" of Itagaki Seishiro, and the "尓" is ishihara's "尓". His father named his son after a core figure in the Kwantung Army whom he admired, presumably in the hope that his son would inherit his legacy and continue to invade China.
However, Japan's aggression was bound to fail, and the fiery militaristic ideology was instantly reduced to ashes under the atomic bomb. After all, the son did not go to war, not even enlisted in the army.
Born in 1935, moved to Beijing in 1936, returned to China in 1941, entered music school in 1951, studied in Europe in 1959, and then stood out in the competition with talent and hard work, became a disciple of the international master conductor, and finally stood on the podium of the most prestigious Boston Symphony Orchestra in the United States and was shortlisted as a world-class conductor.
It can be said that the times have created an individual, and Ozawa's artistic achievements have nothing to do with his father's sins.
However, after all, his childhood was spent in China, and China has his first memories, and although his father was heinous, he also turned back after the war, and once opposed the war, shouting that "the war between the Orientals must stop."
These experiences of Ozawa doomed him to have a constant "unfinished love" with China in his life.
Ozawa visits China
<h1 class="ql-align-center" > the Chinese complex</h1>
Ozawa became famous around the age of 30, and he never came to China until he turned 41 in 1976.
The first time I came was in 1976, when China could not play Western music. When he left, he proposed that he "wanted to be a conductor" the next time he came.
Two years later, he performed at the Beijing Capital Stadium, where Deng Gong personally received and watched.
That year, he heard the original version of "Two Springs Reflecting the Moon" for the first time, and immediately fell to his knees in tears.
That year, he revisited his former residence in Beijing, holding the portrait of his father, saying that he had finally fulfilled his last wish to "go to China to see" with him.
That year, he lived in Beijing for a few days, rehearsing at the Central Orchestra during the day and staying with chinese musicians at night.
He can't stick to hotels, doesn't take a car, doesn't refuse any passers-by's request for photos, likes to walk, likes to play with children, and likes to make dumplings with Chinese friends to eat.
He asked to stay at a friend's house, and he had to share a room with them, ride a bicycle when "to work"...
The persistence and characteristics of all this are all about finding the feeling of "home" in childhood.
When his mother died in 2000, he scattered some of his ashes under a tree in Beijing's Xinkai Hutong Courtyard 69. This tree was planted by my childhood mother.
During Seiji Ozawa's visit to China
<h1 class="ql-align-center" > four or three words of advice to young people</h1>
In Asia, there are three influential world-class conductors: Seiji Ozawa (b. 1935) in Japan, Zubin Mehta (b. 1936) in India, and Jung Myung-hoon (b. 1953) in South Korea.
They have different styles, Ozawa not only debuted early, but also had a great influence on China, and his conducting style is particularly obvious.
He has a pair of "talking arms" and is good at using prominent large movements to express emotions and convey clear messages.
When he was conducted, there was not a single part of his body that did not participate in the movement, and his body was full of music, as if swimming in the vast ocean of music.
Commanded by Seiji Ozawa
Ozawa's achievements, of course, come from talent, but they are more about personal efforts. He once said, "I was one of the first people in the world to get up, and when the sun rises, I often read the score or book for 2 hours." ”
Even after illness in his later years, Ozawa's conducting style remained unchanged, and as soon as he stood on the podium, he was "fierce".
Suffering from pneumonia in 2006, esophageal cancer in 2010, and then heart disease, and a compressive fracture of the lumbar spine, even if "the stomach is full of medicines and the body is full of antibiotics", his greatest happiness is still to return to the stage.
In 2016, at the age of 81, he won the Grammy Award, the highest honor in the American music industry.
Spit out your tongue and sell cuteness
In recent years, Seiji Ozawa has rarely taken the stage to conduct due to his physical health. In an interview with the media, he gave 3 pieces of advice to young people, and Fei Chun felt that these 3 sentences were also very useful not only in the music industry, but also in other fields of struggling youth:
1️⃣ Always make sure that you have time to study;
2️⃣ In the work you are facing, you should choose the job that can best adapt to you;
3️⃣ Work with great musicians often.
<h1 class="ql-align-center" > five, greetings to the world with Chinese</h1>
Seiji Ozawa visited China seven times in his lifetime, and "China" is a topic he cannot avoid when he is asked by reporters.
In 2013, at the age of 78, he was interviewed by Japan's Asahi Shimbun, and when a reporter asked him how he thought about the "cooling" of Japan-China relations, before the reporter could finish speaking, he said:
"This is a 'cooling' among government officials, I have no 'cooling' at all, not at all, if there is anything to do, I can go to [China] tomorrow, there is no cooling at all."
Ozawa visited China to perform
He said, "I don't know very well about political things, but everyone should think a little more, think about it a little more carefully, not because the government says this, or writes it in the newspaper, [affecting their own judgment,] compared to the government, how every ordinary person thinks is the most important, I have always thought so." ”
Focusing on music, independent of politics, and following the heart, this is the real Seiji Ozawa.
At the 2005 Vienna Concert, he unexpectedly used a Chinese "Happy New Year" to greet the world, which caused attacks from the Japanese right, but even if threatened, he did not waver and compromise, which is where the master is respected.
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Bibliographic reference:
Asahi Shimbun
"The Diligent Seiji Ozawa"
"The Pride of the Orientals - Seiji Ozawa"
A Study of Japanese Officials of the Puppet Manchu Concord