Conductor Seiji Ozawa to again take up baton

Tokyo: Orchestra conductor Seiji Ozawa, who cancelled his appearances almost a year ago because of his poor state of health, will return to the podium in August at a festival in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto, NHK television reported.

Ozawa will direct the opera ‘L`Enfant et les Sortileges’ by French composer Maurice Ravel as a featured part of the event, organizers of the Saito Kinen Classical Music Festival told NHK. The 77-year-old Ozawa will direct the Saito Kinen Orchestra Aug 23, 25, 28 and 31 at the Matsumoto Center for Stage Arts in Nagano prefecture. Ozawa, one of the world`s most renowned conductors, suspended his agenda of performances in March 2012 to regain his strength after his health began to fail. The conductor was operated for esophageal cancer in 2010 and was later diagnosed with pneumonia on three occasions. Ozawa has been general director of the annual Saito Kinen Festival since it was founded in 1992. The event and the like-named orchestra were created to commemorate Japanese cellist and conductor Hideo Saito (1902-1974), teacher of Ozawa and other famous Japanese musicians. IANS