TOUGH ON PIPES, WON'T HURT CLOGS

"Imagine Something Awful," -- Phil Gallo in Variety (try bugmetnot).

THEY LIKE ME...

James Levine appeared on Charlie Rose a couple weeks back, and nobody seemed to notice his scathing subtext. The overall theme was how great his career is going, how beloved he is at the MET, how the BSO has rushed to embrace his leadership, and how shuttling between the two cities saves him all kinds of jet lag. But amidst Levine's descriptions of the good life, longtime BSO buffs heard pointed critiques of his BSO predecessor, Seiji Ozawa. To begin with, Rose asked him a very general question about his approach to conducting, and Levine responded with a description of how he strives "never to pantomime" the music. Elaborate gestures by conductors who "act out" the physical manifestations implied in the music tend to distract the listener, shift the focus from the ear to the eye, and get in the way of good listening. Levine argues that his focus is on the composer's intentions blah blah blah. This is a thinly-veiled swipe at Ozawa, one of our great podium dancers, and the key issue critics leveled against him all during his record-setting BSO tenure. (Ozawa could be fun to watch - the first dozen times -but he rarely passed muster when it came to the core repertoire.) The second point was about BSO's swift embrace of Levine's leadership, which is an enormous clue to any leader about the pre-existing LACK of same. He's not Simon Rattle (NYTIMES), but Levine's self-aggrandizing (all dressed up as humility) is clear.