Laurence Glavin wrote:

>The Boston Globe for Thursday, March 17th ran a lengthy front-page
>article (with a "jump" to a page in Section A) about the toll that
>all the excitement of James Levine's first season as Music Director is
>taking on the players, especially the strings.

There may be some merit to this.  I just heard Levine and the BSO slog
through the second and third movements of Ives' Second Symphony.  The
orchestra did sound tired and ragged, but so did Levine's conducting.
It's hard to know whom to blame, but what I heard--admittedly over a
radio broadcast through my stereo--died.  Died beautifully at times, but
died.  Maybe Levine took his lead from Sergiu Celibadache's performances
with the Munich Philharonic that Levine just left (though Levine's tempos
have often been slow, especially recently), but that orchestra could
sustain these tempos.  The Boston Symphony could not.  Nor can the Ives
Second--not this slow, anyway.

Roger Hecht