征尔

A backstage look at one of classical music's best-
　　known yet least understood figures. Ozawa has been
　　music director of the Boston Symphony since 1973,
　　and as one of the world's top maestros he appears in
　　such musical capitals as Berlin, Paris and Milan. Yet the
　　first East Asian to succeed in a quintessentially Western
　　art form remains solidly Japanese in temperament and
　　outlook. It is this contrast of cultures-and its effect on
　　his music making-that makes him such a provocative figure.
　　Ozawa studied conducting with Hideo Saito, who had been
　　a pupil of Cellist Emanuel Feuermann in Germany. He said
　　that if you know music and have no tradition, then you must
　　go to Europe, remembers Ozawa. Today Ozawa uneasily
　　straddles both worlds. The exemplar of success in classical
　　music, in Japan he is a role model to thousands of young
　　performers. In the West, old questions about how deeply he
　　understands music continue to dog him.
　　Given the continuing influx of Asian performers, Ozawa's
　　perspective is one worth heeding. Western music is like
　　the sun, he says. All over the word, the sunset is different,
　　but the beauty is the same. Maybe there is a way to make
　　a marriage between this Oriental blood and Western music.