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Subject:
From:
Roger Hecht <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Moderated Classical Music List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 1 Apr 2007 23:34:24 -0400
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Steve wrote:

>...  As to Levine's conducting abilities, you're right that my opinion
>of them is low -- not that he's incompetent, but that he's so incredibly
>stodgy.  I can't believe he studied with Szell.

It was more obvious when he was young.

>..  There's nothing I look forward
>to hearing from him: not opera, not Romantic music, not Classical, not
>Modern, no single composer.  To me, he's a career.  There are so many
>better conductors out there with not even a tenth of Levine's success
>that it does make me wonder how he got to Boston, Munich, and the Met.
>To give the devil his due, he is a wonderful chamber pianist.

'That sums him up for me interpretively.  Always has.  But he does get
orchestras to play for him.

 From what I can see and have been told, opinions of others are quite
divided about him in Boston, but maybe that just takes in what I hear
and from whom.  Of course, they're more positive than those accorded to
Ozaway.  At the very least, Levine is a good caretaker for an orchestra
that has been adrift for a long long time.  I'd be surprised if he's
here for very long (but is anyone anywhere for very long) and believe
the future of the orchestra lies elsewhere.  Still, if the orchestra is
fortunate enough to get a truly great conductor down the road, that
maestro will owe a good deal to Levine.

Roger Hecht

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