James Levine

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2011: A very mixed year for classical music in Boston

Classical news good and bad.
Valedictions and salutations
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 23, 2011

Handel from BLO and the Cecilia, musicals at the conservatories, and Teatro Lirico's farewell

Boston Lyric Opera is presenting (at the Shubert Theatre through March 22) Handel's first hit opera, Agrippina, a black comedy about ruthless power, lust, and the shreds of nobility. Anyone who still thinks Handel is unrelievedly solemn should rush to th
Play on
By LOYD SCHWARTZ | March 18, 2011

Following Levine's departure, the BSO picks up the pieces

This past week, James Levine ended his BSO tenure after seven seasons, citing challenges regarding his health and the "ensuing absences they have forced." Since leaving Symphony Hall almost five years ago, I've been watching the Levine saga unfold, gritt
After Jimmy
By SEAN KERRIGAN | March 05, 2011

Following Levine's departure, the BSO picks up the pieces

Levine resigns

I’m heartbroken. I’ve just heard that James Levine, after another serious setback to his health, has resigned as the BSO’s music director, a year before his contract was scheduled to expire.
Poor health forces the BSO’s first American director to give up his position
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 04, 2011

UPDATED: James Levine steps down as music director of Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Phoenix has learned that James Levine will step down as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra tonight.UPDATED: 3:32 PM: The BSO has issued...
By Sean Kerrigan | March 02, 2011

Review: Lorin Maazel with the BSO

Lorin Maazel made his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut in 1960, but this busy conductor has returned rarely, once in 1973 and again in 2009 as a substitute for the ailing James Levine in Beethoven's last four symphonies.
Plus, music and images at BCMS, Jeremy Denk, and BSCP's Stravinsky
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 28, 2011

Oedipus schmoedipus

One of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's most famous concerts was one that didn't take place. Nearly 30 years ago, the BSO announced Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex , to be staged by Peter Sellars, with Vanessa Redgrave narrating.
Operas at the BSO, plus the Cantata Singers, the BYSO's Macbeth, and Christine Brewer
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 21, 2011

Sing, sing, sing!

For opera lovers, the offerings last fall were at best a little thin. But this winter, it seems, everyone's doin' it.
Opera is this winter's warmer
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 31, 2010

The Top 10 Classical Music Stories of 2010

The good, the not-so-good, and the departed
The good, the not-so-good, and the departed
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 24, 2010

Review: James Levine with the Met and the BSO

Sighs of relief at Symphony Hall, from patrons and management alike: James Levine, music director of both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera, had completed a doubleheader.
Plus Mark Morris and Boston Baroque
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 22, 2010

Levine on disc

40 years at the Met, Mozart at the BSO
40 years at the Met, Mozart at the BSO
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 08, 2010

James Levine: He's back!

Boston and New York have at least one thing in common. Both have missed James Levine, music director of two of the world's most renowned classical-music institutions.
The conductor returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra (and the Met)
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 08, 2010

Fall Classical Preview: The power of music

Here’s my Top 10 list, in chronological order, of some of the season’s most appealing and important classical music events: symphonies, chamber music, operas.
And, we hope, the good health of James Levine
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 17, 2010

Feeding frenzy

The media rain on James Levine's parade, plus Boston Midsummer Opera
The media rain on James Levine's parade, plus Boston Midsummer Opera
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | August 07, 2010

Jonathan McPhee and The Longwood Symphony Orchestra

Jonathan McPhee and The Longwood Symphony Orchestra at Jordan Hall on May 1, 2010
Northern Lights
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 07, 2010

All you need is love

Outpourings of love have been flooding the Boston musical scene.
Marylou Speaker Churchill memorial, Emmanuel Music’s Haydn/Schoenberg, and more
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 23, 2010

Stuff at night

This week’s health headlines also included the announcement from the Boston Symphony Orchestra that music director James Levine has been sidelined again, from the “excruciating pain” he’s been suffering since his surgery for a herniated disc.
The BSO without Levine, Yo-Yo Ma, the Cantata Singers, American Classics, the Zarounian Ensemble
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 02, 2010

Bach beat

Composers John Harbison and Peter Lieberson are big presences this spring.
Lions and lambs
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 12, 2010

Snakebite

"I can no longer stand to let this travesty continue," sings a character in Madame White Snake , the new opera based on an ancient Chinese legend co-commissioned by Opera Boston, which has just presented its world premiere. I'm afraid I shared the senti
Opera Boston presents the world premiere of Madame White Snake; plus the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Boston Philharmonic
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 05, 2010

Heaven!

Martin Pearlman's edition of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beate Vergine, with inserted antiphons to suggest an actual service, remains a masterpiece of historical research and inspired guesswork.
The BSO and Boston Baroque at their best
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 26, 2010

Double trouble

Boston Lyric Opera's debut Opera Annex production was so good in so many ways, it's painful that one bad idea just about sank it.
BLO's The Turn of the S crew, Levine's Carter and Simon Boccanegra, Teatro Lirico, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, and more
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 12, 2010

Stopping time

BSO music director James Levine has returned to Symphony Hall for the first time since October, when back surgery put him out of commission.
The BSO, Peter Maxwell Davies, BCMS, BMOP, Mark Morris, and Christian Tetzlaff
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 05, 2010

John Harbison plus 10

Classical music in Boston is so rich, having to pick 10 special events for this winter preview is more like one-tenth of the performances I'm actually looking forward to.
Picking from a packed concert schedule
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 01, 2010

2009: The year in Classical

This was a queasy year for classical music.
Beating the quease
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 25, 2009

Open spaces

In my review of the memorable Brahms performances Sir Simon Rattle led with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the Celebrity Series of Boston last month, I should have mentioned that one decision responsible for the beauty and spaciousness of the or
The BSO's Brahms, Ben Zander's Wagner, Collage New Music, and the BEMF's Handel
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 04, 2009

Creationists

Simon Rattle and the BPO, Fabio Luisi and the BSO, John Harbison and Emmanuel Music
Simon Rattle and the BPO, Fabio Luisi and the BSO, John Harbison and Emmanuel Music
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 20, 2009

Almost

The Boston Lyric Opera comes maddeningly close to having a good Carmen . (The production continues at the Shubert Theatre through November 17.) Keith Lockhart leads a superb orchestra and chorus and a cast of plausible singers/actors in a compelling i
BLO's Carmen, the BSO's Beethoven, Emmanuel Music's Haydn and Schoenberg
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 13, 2009

Blessings: mixed and otherwise

By odd coincidence, in recent weeks we’ve had performances of two important operatic rarities, landmark early works a century apart: 30-year-old Handel’s Amadigi (1715) and 20-year-old Rossini’s Tancredi (1813, his 10th opera!).
Boston Baroque’s Amadigi; Opera Boston’s Tancredi; the BSO’s Beethoven; the Borromeo’s Bartók; Brahms from BCMS and BSOCP
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 30, 2009

In the swim

My head’s swimming.
Guerilla Opera, von Stade’s farewell, the BSO, Handel and Haydn, the BPO, and that Tosca
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 16, 2009

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