Absolutely on Music: Conversations (Vintage International).

A novelist and a conductor sat down across many hours to talk about music, and the record of those hours became this book. Haruki Murakami questions Seiji Ozawa about composers, recordings, rehearsal and what a conductor is actually doing on the podium, returning again and again to particular performances and comparing versions of the same work. Ozawa answers with stories from a long career and with the practical detail of someone who has spent his life among orchestras. The exchanges are relaxed enough to follow without formal training, yet specific enough to reward listeners who know the repertoire, and much of the book is really about craft, discipline and how lasting work gets made. How it reads: • Extended conversations between Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa • Discussion of composers, recordings and conducting technique • Stories drawn from Ozawa's years with major orchestras • Open to newcomers while detailed enough for regular listeners A rewarding read for classical music listeners, musicians, Murakami readers and anyone curious about creative work, from Boipoka.