James Levine

[knight66]

He is back and after quite a break. I just read an adulatory report of his return to the podium. I find myself fairly underwhelmed by most of what i hear. I don't like his Wagner or his Verdi. I don't think his Berlioz sounds French. Is his Mahler distinctive generally? I have his Das Lied which I like a great deal and Berg, but I am in the main puzzled about what people so admire. So, although I am very cool about his music making, i would be glad if others would tell me what is first rate and what to listen to.

I can understand he has been a great orchestral trainer but cannot think of a single piece where I rush to him as first choice. What am I missing?

Mike

[Karl Henning]

[...] cannot think of a single piece where I rush to him as first choice. What am I missing?

Mike

Nor I, indeed.

[Todd]

but cannot think of a single piece where I rush to him as first choice. What am I missing?

To my ears, he was better as a younger conductor, and his best work tends to be in 20th Century repertoire.  His Prokofiev 1st & 5th disc is probably my personal first choice for those symphonies, and his disc of modern American works (Carter, Cage, et all) would almost certainly be first choice if I had other recordings of those works, and his Berg VC with Mutter is up there, too.  His RCA Brahms is extremely good, too, as is much of his RCA Mahler. 

[snyprrr]

To my ears, he was better as a younger conductor, and his best work tends to be in 20th Century repertoire.  His Prokofiev 1st & 5th disc is probably my personal first choice for those symphonies, and his disc of modern American works (Carter, Cage, et all) would almost certainly be first choice if I had other recordings of those works, and his Berg VC with Mutter is up there, too.  His RCA Brahms is extremely good, too, as is much of his RCA Mahler.

We have a Winner!

And hey, he's conducting Session's Piano Concerto...LIVE! Yes, USA-DG too. Also, his DG 'Vienna School' cd is pretty good.

[Mandryka]

To my ears, he was better as a younger conductor, and his best work tends to be in 20th Century repertoire.  His Prokofiev 1st & 5th disc is probably my personal first choice for those symphonies, and his disc of modern American works (Carter, Cage, et all) would almost certainly be first choice if I had other recordings of those works, and his Berg VC with Mutter is up there, too.  His RCA Brahms is extremely good, too, as is much of his RCA Mahler.

Did you ever hear his Missa Solemnis? I used to like it when I was more into opera than I am now.

[TheGSMoeller]

Brahms symphonies on RCA, Prokofiev 1 and 5 on DG and two Berg discs, Sony with The Met and the VC on DG, are recordings that I find to be excellent.

[Superhorn]

    Levine has made many superb recordings ranging from Mozart to  a wide variety of  20th century music .I don't agree at all with the dismissive statements made about him here .  He's definitely one of the greatest Wagenr and Verdi conductors of our time .
If you can find it, try the DG CD of Carter's Variations for orchestra, plus works by Schuller, Babbitt and Cage with the C.S.O.

[Karl Henning]

...I don't agree at all with the dismissive statements made about him here....

I don't agree that stating that none of the Levine recordings one has, is a first choice in those works, is "dismissive."

[Todd]

Did you ever hear his Missa Solemnis?

Not yet, but perhaps some day.  (New recordings of that work are not high priority for me right now.)

[flyingdutchman]

His DG Brahms, his RCA Brahms, his RCA Schumann, and his RCA Mahler are all first rate.

[knight66]

Did you ever hear his Miss Solemnis? I used to like it when I was more into opera than I am now.

I have his commercial Missa Solemnis. I don't feel the first two movements are all they could be with speeds a touch on the slow side for me and the inner parts not brought to life, but then in the second half I very much enjoyed what i thought was a very moving performance.

I can't get on with his Wagner, and I have quite a bit of it. I don't now have any of his Verdi, I have tended to hear it live. But I just don't like his way with Verdi and turn to many others.

I like Berg and some Schoenberg, i am amazed anyone likes his Mozart, but really I want to know some detail of what people do get from his work that I miss.

Mike

[Karl Henning]

I couldn't imagine I should care for his Mozart, either.

I suppose that, as I have only one full recording of Parsifal, and that conducted by Levine, his is my go-to recording.I just haven't gone to it at all often.

He tended to broad tempi whenever I heard him in Symphony Hall, and the band matched him in nerve, and carried it off.  Still, after a short time it become apparent that if I expected to hear a genuine Vivo, it would be a night with a guest conductor.  I heard Levine conduct many a fine program in the Hall, but I seldom felt the music possessed exhilaration when he was at the podium.

[jochanaan]

I couldn't imagine I should care for his Mozart, either.

I suppose that, as I have only one full recording of Parsifal, and that conducted by Levine, his is my go-to recording.I just haven't gone to it at all often.

He tended to broad tempi whenever I heard him in Symphony Hall, and the band matched him in nerve, and carried it off.  Still, after a short time it become apparent that if I expected to hear a genuine Vivo, it would be a night with a guest conductor.  I heard Levine conduct many a fine program in the Hall, but I seldom felt the music possessed exhilaration when he was at the podium.

That's what I've felt too.  I heard his Parsifal at the Met in 1979, and while beautifully played and sung, it just wasn't as passionate as I'd hoped.  (The next night's Eugene Onegin, with a guest conductor, was played and sung much more enthusiastically.)

The one exception I've heard is his recording of The Planets with the Chicago Symphony; I heard that over the radio, and the brass in Mars nearly blew the speakers!  (But what else would you expect from the Chicago Symphony brass? )

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I can say with certainty I have a first choice recording by Levine: Mozart's Coronation Mass (the Haydn is good, too):





This is the Berlin Philharmonic but it's not big tent music-making. It's been pitted against even some HIPsters over the years (Pinnock and Hogwood) and won out.

Otherwise I've always enjoyed his Wagner (Ring), and his Gurrelieder w/ the Munich Philharmonic (Oehms) is very nicely done.

[DavidRoss]

What am I missing?

Performances at the Met?

And this, perhaps?

The one exception I've heard is his recording of The Planets with the Chicago Symphony; I heard that over the radio, and the brass in Mars nearly blew the speakers! 

And that is one of my faves, and their Mars is the best, hands down!

[kishnevi]

This is one that (IIRC) Sarge made me aware of, and it's one of my three or four favorite recordings of M9.
Amazon for some reason has two listings for this, so I'll link to both (the second doesn't seem to have a CD image, but the link works)/
[asin]B0021JLP6Q[/asin]
[asin]B0006Z2L88[/asin]

[Sergeant Rock]

I can understand he has been a great orchestral trainer but cannot think of a single piece where I rush to him as first choice.

I have a few:

Mahler 3 (Chicago)
Mahler 9 (Munich Phil)
Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos (Vienna)
Wagner Götterdämmerung
Berg Violin Concerto

And works from these two Second Viennese discs:



The Webern op.6 is especially memorable.

Sarge

[TheGSMoeller]

Just realized I also have that Ariadne auf Naxos, another excellent Levine disc.

[knight66]

Yes, i have that Ariadne.

Mike

[jochanaan]

I have a few:

Mahler 3 (Chicago)...

Which one?  I have the one from the 1970s, but I never thought it was that distinguished.  Yeah, the tempos were mostly okay, and Marilyn Horne was magnificent, but the last movement's ending in particular left me underwhelmed.  (Jascha Horenstein and David Zinman, of all conductors, seem to have come the closest to what Mahler actually wrote re tempo and expressive indications.)