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A review by joaniemaloney
Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Murakami
4.0
Oh, this was such a delight.
Despite having taken lessons for over a decade of my life (piano, classically trained, the whole RCM shebang), I don't listen to music with 1/1000th of the attention that Haruki Murakami does, so even if this book was just him talking about his love for music, that would've been enough to motivate me to listen more widely and jump back into the world that I've mostly abandoned since revolving around it in my high school days. However, this book isn't just Murakami's musings, but a series of warm conversations between friends. The other partner, Seiji Ozawa, is a veteran conductor with a wealth of stories that would leave any fan in awe. His dedication to the music as a whole, to teaching, and his all-consuming love for his art is so beautiful.
I have so much to listen to because of this book. Mahler, man. Beyond having to listen to pieces that I had to play or study for exams, I didn't do much listening for leisure, much less know multiple recordings of the same piece by heart to compare and contrast like Murakami did, for so many works. Maybe I'm too blasé but that did impress me.
I knew this one would be up my alley and that I would learn a lot from it when I heard about the collaboration, but this book is going on my wishlist for the holidays because I'd love to keep it as a reference to leaf through as I listen to more. It'll be quite an undertaking to go through everything if I include the throwaway mentions, but it'll be worth it.
PS: I was both amused and disappointed at how little the Toronto Symphony Orchestra factored in here (hometown bias, sorry!). It's quite sad - not a loss for him, obviously, but for us over here. It read like those few years Ozawa spent with them as music director was a speck of dust compared to everything else. No inspiration, no impact, no memories. I was surprised to even see him being in Toronto when I checked his bio before reading, so at least they had him for a bit before he was off to better things. Even a quick search on wikipedia has nothing in that time beyond noting the years, and it wasn't even a full sentence - a half one with San Francisco taking the second half. It's a blink and you'll miss it.
Despite having taken lessons for over a decade of my life (piano, classically trained, the whole RCM shebang), I don't listen to music with 1/1000th of the attention that Haruki Murakami does, so even if this book was just him talking about his love for music, that would've been enough to motivate me to listen more widely and jump back into the world that I've mostly abandoned since revolving around it in my high school days. However, this book isn't just Murakami's musings, but a series of warm conversations between friends. The other partner, Seiji Ozawa, is a veteran conductor with a wealth of stories that would leave any fan in awe. His dedication to the music as a whole, to teaching, and his all-consuming love for his art is so beautiful.
I have so much to listen to because of this book. Mahler, man. Beyond having to listen to pieces that I had to play or study for exams, I didn't do much listening for leisure, much less know multiple recordings of the same piece by heart to compare and contrast like Murakami did, for so many works. Maybe I'm too blasé but that did impress me.
I knew this one would be up my alley and that I would learn a lot from it when I heard about the collaboration, but this book is going on my wishlist for the holidays because I'd love to keep it as a reference to leaf through as I listen to more. It'll be quite an undertaking to go through everything if I include the throwaway mentions, but it'll be worth it.
PS: I was both amused and disappointed at how little the Toronto Symphony Orchestra factored in here (hometown bias, sorry!). It's quite sad - not a loss for him, obviously, but for us over here. It read like those few years Ozawa spent with them as music director was a speck of dust compared to everything else. No inspiration, no impact, no memories. I was surprised to even see him being in Toronto when I checked his bio before reading, so at least they had him for a bit before he was off to better things. Even a quick search on wikipedia has nothing in that time beyond noting the years, and it wasn't even a full sentence - a half one with San Francisco taking the second half. It's a blink and you'll miss it.