James Levine will not be replaced as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Sure, someone else will take up the baton, make programming choices, and lead rehearsals. But nobody will replace him.
There is nobody else.
(See how we handicap the race for the new music director of the BSO at the end of this story.)
Levine is one of the greatest musicians alive. Not just for his conducting skills, his piano skills, his 40-year tenure leading the Metropolitan Opera, or his profound influence commissioning the future of music.
Those accomplishments definitely matter. But Levine’s genius lies in one thing: his devotion to the repertory.
One moment in his tenure stands out. In the summer of 2009, Levine conducted Brahms’ “A German Requiem” at Tanglewood. Like many Berkshire evenings, the skies were ominous as the music began. At one point, thunder roared loudly through Stockbridge Bowl, fittingly, just before Brahms’ setting of “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place.” Hearing the rumble, Levine gave a lengthy, exaggerated pause, looked up at the heavens, and then began. A moment of drama, and a bit of poetic license, to be sure.
At the conclusion (the rain held off, by the way), as a huge ovation swept over the stage, Levine and the cast acknowledged the vigorous applause. But before leaving the stage for the last time, Levine reached over to his music stand, put his hand on the cover of the score, and bowed himself. To Brahms.
The greatest practitioners of classical music are long dead. Our link to them lies in the printed legacy, and a few individuals’ ability to draw the beauty out of that legacy. We depend on artists like James Levine, who feel as close to those composers as he does to his fellow musicians.
Waving the baton, the conductor Roger Norrington said, is not difficult. What’s difficult is having ideas. Levine had ideas. When he took over the BSO seven years ago, barely 60 years old — young in conductor years — it appeared that we were at the start of an entire generation of great music-making at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood.
The orchestra, after the overlong tenure of Seiji Ozawa, was obviously looking for an infusion of energy. But we never got the Levine we were promised, as his body betrayed him. Rotator cuff surgery after a fall onstage. A cancerous kidney removed. Several back surgeries. All forcing last-minute cancellations, substitute conductors, revised agendas. The potential golden era for the BSO glimmered with promise, then dimmed.
Only a few conductors have the throw-weight of James Levine, and none of those seem likely to be motivated to take over the BSO. Daniel Barenboim, well respected as a pianist and conductor, seems firmly ensconced in Europe. When he was recommended several years ago to take over the New York Philharmonic, Barenboim firmly declined, saying he did not want to relocate to America.
Simon Rattle in Berlin, with a contract through 2018, Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles, the boy wonder from Venezuela, and Michael Tilson-Thomas in San Francisco, with ties early in his career to Boston, would also be bold choices, but also unlikely to consider a move to Boston. Esa-Pekka Salonen holds only a single post, with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, but he has no connections to Boston.
Instead, the BSO seems headed for a caretaker tenure of at least one year, perhaps two, before settling on new leadership. Levine has resigned effective Sept. 1, a deadline that may as well be yesterday given conductors’ schedules, and BSO managing director Mark Volpe hinted in the hours just after Levine resigned that a temporary choice would probably be necessary.
A distinguished elder statesman (and in this case, they are all men), known to the players and orchestra management, might be prevailed upon to accept. Of that lot, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Lorin Maazel, and Kurt Masur are best known in Boston. The urbane Fruhbeck is an orchestra favorite, and would provide a media-friendly face while management decides on a long-term strategy. Dohnanyi, Maazel and Masur are also popular onstage and upstairs at Symphony Hall. The BSO could expand the role of Bernard Haitink, currently conductor emeritus, for a short spell.
For the long term? Fact is, things won’t really be different in a couple years. The same names will be out there, with the same top-notch stars (Dudamel, Tilson-Thomas, Rattle) still tied up indefinitely.
But consider this: In the early ’70s, the BSO chose a little-known Japanese protege of Leonard Bernstein. Seiji Ozawa had just gone through controversial stints both in San Francisco and Toronto, and the Boston music world offered a resounding “Who’s that?” when he brought his flamboyant style to Symphony Hall. But he stayed for three decades and became the face of the orchestra.
Could the BSO make a similarly bold move? The New York Philharmonic, choosing 44 year old Alan Gilbert to replace Maazel in 2009, did just that. San Francisco did the same with Tilson-Thomas. Los Angeles has electrified its audiences in choosing Dudamel.
Who could the BSO chose to make a similarly bold statement? Robert Spano, who has disappeared from the BSO stage in recent years, after a long association with the orchestra, might be such a conductor. David Robertson has made a solid impression in his guest appearances, as has James Conlon. Mark Elder, Hans Graf, and Christoph Eschenbach also have impressed. The most intriguing choice to my mind would be Marin Alsop, who leads orchestras in Baltimore and Sao Paolo, but has made only rare appearances here in Boston. To name Alsop as the first female conductor of a major international orchestra would be a media coup, and truly sound musically. No musician that I have ever spoken with has had anything but great things to say about the 54-year-old American.
A woman on the podium at the BSO? We’re ready.
Leaders of the pack
Here’s a breakdown of the conductors who may be considered for the coveted post of music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “The Caretakers” category handicaps the conductors who may take over the post for the short term. The other categories offer some long-term candidates for the position.
The Caretakers
One of these elder statesmen is likely to be interim music director:
Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos (3-1), Lorin Maazel (5-1), Christoph von Dohnanyi (5-1), Charles Dutoit (8-1), Bernard Haitink (10-1), Herbert Blomstedt (100-1), Pierre Boulez (100-1), Andrew Davis (100-1), Colin Davis (100-1), James DePriest (100-1), Christoph Eschenbach (100-1), Marek Janowski (100-1), Andre Previn (100-1), Yuri Temirkanov (100-1), Edo de Waart (100-1)
Dream On
Any of these great conductors would create a huge spark of interest in Boston, but it seems unlikely the BSO will lure them from their current posts:
Daniel Barenboim (1,000-1), Simon Rattle (1,000-1), Michael Tilson-Thomas (1,000-1), Valery Gergiev (1,000-1), Gustavo Dudamel (1,000-1), Esa-Pekka Salonen (1,000-1)
A Glimpse of the Future?
Here are the choices if the BSO boldly decides to align itself with a mid-career conductor:
Marin Alsop (15-1), Riccardo Chailly (15-1), James Conlon (15-1), Mark Elder (15-1), David Robertson (15-1), Robert Spano (15-1), Hans Graf (100-1), Alan Gilbert (100-1), Manfred Honeck (100-1), Paavo Jarvi (100-1), Neeme Jarvi (100-1), Riccardo Muti (100-1), Kent Nagano (100-1), Gianandrea Noseada (100-1), Leonard Slatkin (100-1), Osmo Vanska (100-1), Franz Welser-Most (100-1), David Zinman (100-1)
Fascinating, but...
Probably too inexperienced for BSO:
All 1,000 - 1: Robert Abbado, Douglas Boyd, Jens-Georg Bachmann, Jo-Ann Faletta, Daniele Gatti, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Pablo Heras Casado, Ingo Metzmacher, Anne Manson, Susanna Mallki, Ludovic Morlot, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Peter Oundjian, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Hugh Wolff, Mario Venzago, Christian Zacharias, Jaap van Zweden
