Fountains in The Park

Seiji Ozawa was the first Asian conductor to rise to international stardom. After his Koussivitzky Prize at Tanglewood, he honed his skills as assistant to Leonard Bernstein in New York and Herbert von Karajan in Berlin. Directorships of the Nissei Theatre in Tokyo, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera followed. In 2016 he withdrew from the international scene to Japan, dedicating his time to the Mito Chamber Orchestra and to teaching.

This is the second and last volume of Naxos’s complete music for solo piano by Rodrigo. It is played by the superb Artur Pizarro. I was enthusiastic about Volume 1 a couple of years ago (see review), even chose it as one of my recordings of the year. I wasn’t alone in admiring it: both my colleagues Steve Arloff and Patrick Waller praised it and it was Editor’s choice in Gramophone. I have no reason to be less enthusiastic this time. Pizarro’s playing is certainly second to none, combining clarity with warmth and being unfailingly rhythmically alert.