Two weeks ago I made a trip to Paris, to observe Seiji Ozawa work with the Orchestre National. One of the most interesting things that week was the world premiere of the final version of "Le Temps l'horloge" by Henri Dutilleux. Ozawa had performed the three existing movements before, but this time he and the players got the final movement on their desks - and the ink had not dried yet! And that was not all - some really funny moments took place in the rehearsals too.

I really admired Ozawa's patience and professionalism when he found out that between two rehearsals maestro Dutilleux had changed rhythmic placement of some bass parts and orchestration of one little solo (and apparently did not remember to inform the conductor about it). But the best part was when after the orchestra had played the whole final movement, Dutilleux suddenly realized that something important is still missing. He tried to communicate it to maestro, but finally Ozawa had to step down from the podium, take his score to the composer, and kindly request: "Why don't you write it in my score?" After which Dutilleux composed five more notes for the piccolo under the eyes of maestro Ozawa, the orchestra, and all the people who were listening in the hall!!! You could call that a "work in progress", couldn't you?

Anyway, the concert (with Renée Fleming singing the soprano solo) was a great success and the piece was repeated by request of the public! The other pieces in the concert were Ravel's Mother Goose suite and Berlioz' Symphonic Excerpts from Romeo & Julia. Ozawa did a superb job with his funny personal style.