Murray Perahia (L) – Seiji Ozawa (R) – part of the 99th season of the BSO.

The Boston Symphony in concert this week – recorded on November 29, 1979 with Murray Perahia, piano and music Director Seiji Ozawa leading the orchestra through works by Mozart and Holst.

Starting with the Overture to The Impresario by Mozart, followed by Piano concert Number 20 with Murray Perahia, piano and concluding with Holst: The Planets.

Pretty straight-forward music making with a recording that lets you know how old it is with dropouts and some hiss to remind you. But still . . .

Murray Perahia has been considered one of the greatest living pianists. He was the first North American pianist to win the Leeds International Piano Competition, in 1972. Known as a leading interpreter of Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, among other composers, Perahia has won numerous awards, including three Grammy Awards from a total of 18 nominations, and 9 Gramophone Awards in addition to its first and only “Piano Award”.

Seiji Ozawa rose to fame after he won the 1959 Besançon competition. He was invited by Charles Munch, then the music director of the BSO, for the following year to Tanglewood, the orchestra’s summer home, where he studied with Munch and Pierre Monteux. Winning the festival’s Koussevitzky Prize earned him a scholarship with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic and brought him to the attention of Leonard Bernstein, who made him his assistant with the New York Philharmonic in 1961. He became artistic director of the festival and education program in Tanglewood in 1970, together with Gunther Schuller. In 1994, the new main hall there was named after him.

Ozawa conducted world premieres such as György Ligeti‘s San Francisco Polyphony in 1975 and Olivier Messiaen‘s opera Saint François d’Assise in Paris in 1983. He received numerous international awards. Ozawa was the first Japanese conductor recognized internationally and the only one of superstar status.

You know the rest – so without further ado, press Play and relax. You earned it.