Today’s selections demonstrate the wide repertoire that Ozawa performed with the era’s top performers. All but the final Behrens-Beethoven track come from his tenure at the San Francisco Symphony.

I might point out that the astonishingly generous (14 arias!) Caballé concert happened a week after her famous Met double-bill of Don Carlo matinee followed by the Bing Gala in the evening when she performed the Manon Lescaut duet with Placido Domingo.

The Mahler excerpt with Forrester comes from the conductor’s farewell concert as music director of the SFS.

One can also hear Ozawa leading Berlioz, one of his specialties, in a sparking Béatrice et Bénédict here, as well as the legendary one-time-only Norman and Jon Vickers in Act I of Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Leontyne Price Gala

1. Le nozze di Figaro: Dove sono
2. Aida: Ritorna Vincitor
3. R. Strauss: Vier Letzte Lieder
4. La forza del destino: Pace, pace mio Dio
5. Manon Lescaut: In quelle trine morbide
6. La Rondine: Chi il bel sogno di Doretta

Leontyne Price
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
28 February 28 1970
Broadcast

Montserrat Caballé Verdi-Puccini Concert

1. Aida: Ritorna vincitor
2. Aida: O patria mia
3. La Forza del Destino: Pace, pace mio dio
4. Il Trovatore: D’amor sull’ali rosee
5. Ernani: Ernani, involami
6. Madama Butterfly: Un bel di vedremo
7. La Boheme: Mi chiamano Mimì
8. Tosca: Vissi d’arte
9. Turandot: Signore ascolta
10. Manon Lescaut: In quelle trine morbide

Encores:
– La Boheme: Donde lieta uscì
– La Rondine: Chi il bel sogno di Doretta
– Il Corsaro: Egli non riede ancora
– Tancredi: Di tanti palpiti

Montserrat Caballé
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
30 April 1972
Broadcast

Verdi: Messa da Requiem “Libera me”

Martina Arroyo
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
San Francisco Symphony Chorus
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
20 April 1973
Broadcast

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde “Prelude and Liebestod” 

Jessye Norman
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
21 May 1975
Broadcast

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Urlicht”

Maureen Forrester
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
27 May 1977
Broadcast

Beethoven: Ah, Perfido!

Hildegard Behrens
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Tanglewood Festival
28 August 1982
Broadcast

Today’s Ozawa selections can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.

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