Maestro Seiji Ozawa on Tuesday launched his final series of appearances in New York leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra with a performance at Carnegie Hall.
Ozawa, 66, who has been appointed musical director of the Vienna State Opera and will start his new job in the fall, will resign from the Boston Symphony in August. He has conducted the orchestra since 1973.
He will lead two more concerts with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall through Thursday.
Internationally acclaimed cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, a good friend of Ozawa, performed in Tuesday's concert. His sorrowful timbre blended well with the orchestra in Dvorak's "Cello Concerto in B Minor." The audience of about 3,000 showered the performers with applause at the finale.