When we were young, the position of symphony orchestra conductor was an appointment for life, and holding more than one post was uncommon. We’re just saying.

If the good old ways had been kept up, then everyone would have been spared the embarrassing tease of the Metropolitan Opera’s James Levine’s health-related absences from his other job in Boston.

Mr. Levine acknowledged that he might have bitten off too much. “From the very beginning I didn’t handle both jobs completely smoothly,” he said. “There was always for me a tightness in the schedule between finishing a group of things here and then having to go right away to another group of things somewhere else.” As a younger, healthier man, he said, he could handle that.

[snip]

Mr. Levine’s health problems sometimes seem to be scrutinized like those of a political leader or pope because he is an enormously influential figure in classical music. He plays a central role in one of the world’s leading opera houses, has the devotion of many major singers and directs one of the top orchestras around.

He has a large fan base and attracts donors. Administrators rely on his leadership to keep their institutions musically excellent. Audience members buy tickets for him, not — at least not yet — for the likes of his substitutes, including Sean Newhouse, an assistant conductor for the Boston orchestra who led Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 last weekend.

If Mr Levine were to die, or to retire altogether from the podium, his reputation as one of the greatest conductors of the Twentieth Century would be secure. Ambition at this stage is unseemly.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 at 8:00 pm.