Less Levine, But No Less Committed

“James Levine does look thinner, healthier, and the best part of all, there’s no change in his magical right baton-waving hand. And so he proved it last night at Tanglewood, conducting a little eerily for this listener the same program that he was leading when he took a header and crashed into rotator cuff surgery on March 1. That would be the Schoenberg first chamber symphony, and the glorious Beethoven ninth. He’s certainly lost a bunch of pounds, but James Levine has lost none of his humane gravitas.”