Ozawa
(Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Deborah Dickson, and Susan Froemke, France/Japan/West Germany 1985, 57 min., 16mm)
A backstage look at one of classical music’s best-known yet least understood figures. Ozawa has been music director of the Boston Symphony since 1973, and as one of the world’s top maestros he appears in such musical capitals as Berlin, Paris, and Milan.
Horowitz Plays Mozart
(Albert Maysles, Susan Froemke, and Charlotte Zwerin, US 1987, 50 min., 16mm)
In March 1987, pianist Vladimir Horowitz embarked on an extraordinary project. For the first time in 35 years, he agreed to record with a symphony orchestra in a studio. He chose the conductor, Carlo Maria Giulini; the orchestra, the La Scala Philharmonic; and the location, the Abanella recording studio of La Scala in Milan. Horowitz steadfastly refused to allow the month-long sessions to be filmed, until the evening before the last scheduled session when he unexpectedly changed his mind.