Time to give second chance to BSO's new musical director
By Keith Powers
Saturday, July 9, 2005 - Updated: 12:22 AM EST
In golf, you give new friends a mulligan. So lets offer that to James Levine after yesterday evening's opening night at Tanglewood, his debut as music director at the BSO's summer home.
Not that the performance was anything less than spectacular. It was just that: a spectacle of choruses, orchestra and soloists, overwhelming to the extreme.
Levine offered a reprise of the Mahler 8th, which he used to introduce himself to Boston audiences in the fall in his BSO debut. With much the same spectacular cast, Levine revisited the great texts from the final scene of Goethe's ``Faust'' that made such a stupendous first appearance for the BSO under its new maestro. But sometimes such an overwhelming work is inappropriate in this casual setting.
Where to start? The soloists offer a good place. After the magnificient Lorraine Lieberson Hunt had to beg off for some unspecified reason, tonight's shouters included Deborah Voigt, Heidi Grant Murphy, Jane Henschel, Johan Botha, Eike Wilm Schulte and John Relyea - truly an amazing group of soloists.
It was an ensemble that only Levine could muster from his hiring days as the opera mojo man in New York. Voigt, resplendent in a red dress and golden locks,sang her part as Una poenitentium with bravura virtuosity. Relyea, as Pater profundus, also put on a bravura performance.
The choruses were well prepared and sang wonderfully. So what's the problem? Well, when are we going to hear the maestro with his new orchestra? We've seen them ornamented with choruses, huge groupings of soloists, many many new commissions to boot - but rarely a chance to shine on its own.
The introductory scenes for orchestra that set the mood for part two gave some hint of what might come. But if our maestro really wants to make his mark, it must come with him and the band making important music, not music that shows off his other, non-orchestral inclinations.
In a couple weeks, Levine will do a survey of the Brahms symphonies - all four in two evenings- and maybe then we'll see what this new relationship is all about.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Levine conducting, Friday evening in the Shed at Tanglewood.
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