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Looking forward by looking back
Levine, live from Munich
BY DAVID WEININGER

James Levine’s first season at the Boston Symphony Orchestra has been the story of the classical season, not only here but throughout the classical world. Critics and audiences have mostly agreed that his accomplishments have already been significant and that the rapport between the orchestra and its music director augurs an excellent, long-term partnership. This week, Levine begins the final month of his 2004–2005 BSO conducting season with programs that encompass Haydn, Schubert, Wagner, Ives, Harbison and Gershwin.

To put his achievement in context, and for an idea of how he’ll fare this month, we might want to look back — not at what he’s done so far in Boston, but at his tenure at the Munich Philharmonic. Levine was the Philharmonic’s chief conductor from 1999 through 2004, succeeding the always eccentric, sometimes brilliant, often frustrating Sergiu Celibidache. As a career step, decision to go there puzzled many observers: why was one of the best conductors in the business taking over a good but second-tier orchestra when so many top-rated bands wanted his services?

Nevertheless, Levine made some terrific music in Munich, and we can now sample a large chunk of it thanks to a series of live recordings released by the Oehms Classics label. Spread over 12 CDs in eight volumes, the "Documents of the Munich Years" cover a breathtakingly wide repertoire.

Where to start with a collection of this size and range? Perhaps the best entry point is one from which Levine himself enters music: as an American. He is, all we all now know, the first American to lead the BSO, and he’s the most prominent living American conductor. He’s also a tireless advocate of American music, so no surprise that two of the Munich CDs are devoted entirely to it. Volume 7 starts with a brilliant, lively account of Gershwin’s Cuban Overture; listen to its jazzy rhythms and brass flourishes and you’ll wonder why this piece is so rarely played. John Harbison’s Third Symphony gets an intense, probing reading full of clarity. Rounding out the disc is a warm and detailed account of the Ives Second Symphony, which Levine will conduct with the BSO March 17, 18, 19, and 22. It can’t match Bernstein’s classic New York Philharmonic version for all-out intensity, but it’s beautifully laid out, and the build-up to the famous "wrong" chord at the end is magnificent.

The other American CD, Volume 2, covers a narrower and thornier slice of mid-to-late-20th-century music. Two of the selections are works Levine has performed in Boston: Charles Wuorinen’s Grand Bamboula, a quick-moving series of strange sounds and textures, and Roger Sessions’s Piano Concerto (with Robert Taub), equal parts 12-tone complexity and strangely haunting lyricism. Carter’s Variations for Orchestra sounds more rounded, less frenetic and edgy than the version Levine recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra 10 years ago. Finally, there’s Robert Di Domenica’s Symphony, which is based on a motive from the finale of Mozart’s G-minor Symphony that’s almost a 12-tone scale. All four pieces get dedicated and propulsive readings, and Levine demonstrates yet again his talent for making intricate scores transparent.

The more eclectic assemblage of Volume 4 opens with an appropriately jovial version of the Overture to Weber’s Oberon. It’s accompanied by a gorgeous Copland rarity, the Concerto for Clarinet and Strings, with Piano and Harp, which was originally composed for Benny Goodman. Its two movements, linked by a long cadenza, unite two essential sides of Copland: the open, yearning style of the first and the rhythmic swing of the second. Munich principal clarinet Martin Spangenberg plays beautifully. That’s followed by a lithe performance of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche. The one dud is a somewhat flat, perfunctory rendition of Mozart’s Symphony No. 39; only the final movement has the requisite energy and flair.

Something similar happens in Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony on Volume 8: it muddles along for three good but unremarkable movements, none of which prepares you for the explosive finale. The rest of this volume’s two discs are taken up by act three of Wagner’s Siegfried. Few living conductors have as extensive an involvement with Wagner, and it shows in this vehement, dramatic, but well-controlled affair, which has some of the best orchestral playing on any of these discs. Ben Heppner’s Siegfried and Linda Watson’s BrŸnnhilde are both very good, though lacking just a bit in character. Volume 6 is devoted to Brahms, with outstanding performances of the First Symphony and the Schicksalslied. The latter features an amazingly tranquil opening and wonderful singing by the Philharmonic’s chorus.

That leaves three two-CD sets, two of which are devoted to major works of late Romanticism. Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder (Volume 1) is given a lush, expansive reading — you can almost hear Levine lavishing his famous attention to detail on every phrase and important point. It’s not the most gripping version of the piece out there, but it features the Philharmonic in top form and some terrific singing: Heppner, Deborah Voigt, Waltraud Meier, and Matthew Polenzani. Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (Volume 3) moves from the expansive to the slow; the last movement stretches out to over half an hour (32:27) before the applause kicks in. The Munich players, though, don’t seem able to support the breadth of Levine’s vision as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra did in his RCA recording 25 years ago. Finally, Volume 5 is devoted entirely to Bart—k. The first disc’s concert performance of the opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle is somewhat lacking in drama but has more wonderful singing from bass John Tomlinson and Bulgarian soprano Kremena Dilcheva. The second disc is one of the set’s highlights, an incandescent version of the Third Piano Concerto with Jonathan Biss and a searing account of the Miraculous Mandarin Suite.

Taken as a representative sample of Levine’s work in Germany, the "Documents of the Munich Years" is variable, as any such set has to be, though it bears emphasizing that the excellent musicmaking vastly outweighs the less excellent. But the conclusion that kept coming to mind as I listened to these discs is that Levine took a big step up in orchestral quality when he came to Boston. The Munich Philharmonic is a very good orchestra, but it can’t match the BSO for unity, depth, incisiveness, and sheer tone quality. You wonder what a similar set of "Documents from the Boston Years" might look like 10 years from now. That is a prospect to set the mouth watering.

James Levine begins a month of performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra this weekend with a program that’s already officially sold out (though a dress rehearsal has been added for Thursday morning at 10 a.m.): Haydn’s Symphony No. 92, Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20, with Alfred Brendel, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 4. Wagner’s Der fliegende HollŠnder follows on March 11, 13, and 15; call (617) 266-1200.


Issue Date: March 4 - 10, 2005
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