Tuesday, April 6, 2010

jimmy cracks corn and i don't care

With James Levine pulling out of the rest of the Met season, and prospects of him appearing at Tanglewood this summer becoming dire, it doesn't seem unreasonable to say that he needs to give up one of his two major jobs. He has shaped both the Met Orchestra and Boston Symphony into incredible forces, but it is time to let at least one, if not both, go.

So the question here is: Who to replace him? I'm thinking Fabio Luisi for the Met (provided his Tosca and Lulu work out), but BSO is a bit harder to figure out. Ideally we'd get a young face, readily marketable and versatile in contemporary music as well as the standard Boston fare. Robin Ticciati? Yannick Nézet-Séguin has the French repertoire chops to do some quality work with the orchestra, but I've only seen him once live (a thrilling Mendelssohn Italian symphony at Mostly Mozart) and he's gotten some mixed reviews. Has David Robertson conducted in Boston recently? He was my dream pick for the New York Phil, but seems very committed to St. Louis. Ideally, the BSO would use the opportunity of Levine's departure to unveil a new vision for the orchestra, more in line with Gilbert in New York and Dudamel (post-Salonen) in L.A.

Who would you suggest, for Met or BSO?

2 comments:

  1. Jimmy won't be cracking away from the MET anytime soon -- and when he does, perhaps first into some sort of "senior" or "laureate" position it would be a shame, I think, not to have an American in the position. As for Boston -- YN-S? Greatly overrated from what I've heard thus far at Salzburg and the MET. Again, a serious look at some young Americans would be even more important for the Boston job than the MET spot.

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  2. Apparently he never signed his last contract with Boston, so as Geoff Edgers from the Globe makes it sound, the BSO is free to begin searching for new conductors to replace him permanently and immediately. To read his article, it seems it may not be up to Levine to decide when to leave.

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