Ozawa is doing well on the charts these days. Not Kenji Ozawa, the nasally singer whose popularity I cannot fathom, but his uncle, classical conductor Seiji Ozawa. The elder Ozawa's "New Year's Concert 2002" album entered the music-industry trade paper Oricon's Jan. 28 album chart at No. 9, marking the first time a classical album has made it to the top 10 of the Japanese album charts.
The concert was recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic in the Austrian capital on Jan. 1 and broadcast live on NHK. It hit the shelves Jan. 23 -- in an amazingly short turnaround period between recording and release -- and has sold some 200,000 copies since.
This year, Ozawa will be leaving his post as principal conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to become music director of the Vienna State Opera, and what better way to begin his tenure in that city on the Blue Danube than with this record on the charts? (It includes, of course, "On the Beautiful Blue Danube.")
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