Monday, June 14, 2010

The Tanglewood Shoe Drops

The press release headlines from the BSO say it all:

BSO ANNOUNCES CHANGES TO 2010 TANGLEWOOD SCHEDULE

JAMES LEVINE TO WITHDRAW FROM HIS CONCERTS WITH THE BSO AND TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER DUE TO FURTHER RECUPERATION TIME NEEDED AFTER

RECENT BACK SURGERY

His replacements include MTT, Dohnanyi, Debus, Graf, and TBA.

Next question: will he conduct opening night and the run of Das Rheingold at the Met? Watch this space.

7 comments:

Henry Holland said...

How long is the BSO and The Met going to wait around for him to get healthy enough to stand on a podium for more than 5 minutes?

As you no doubt know, the young French conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin was given the Philadelphia Orchestra job, starting in 2012. As Parterre Box put it "Another One Bites The Dust" i.e. another talented (and gay and way hot) young conductor gets signed elsewhere while the Met and BSO/Tanglewood jobs are in flux.

Henry Holland said...

Correction: French-Canadian, an important distinction.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Aha, yes, that is an important distinction, and, yes, I'd heard about the appointment.

After nearly 40 years and some insane number of performances, the Met will wait at least another year before taking any action. The BSO, who knows?

Immanuel Gilen said...

The BSO does seem, ever so cautiously though, to suggest that there could be some changes ahead...they're going to have a "discussion about the future" with Levine, and more press release verbiage.

On the other hand, the Met isn't suggesting any doubt about Levine's status, but they did hire a new principal guest conductor...

I think it's hard to say who would drop Levine first, but my money's on the BSO.

Lisa Hirsch said...

"Discussion about the futrure" - that was in Jeremy Eichler's article in the spring?

I'm hoping he'll recover from all of this, but both organizations, whatever they say, must be having high-level discussions about what to do if he must go part-time or retire.

y2k said...

Mark Volpe has voiced his concerns during the latest cancellations.

If Levine is going to cancel Met's opening - I wonder how much in advance will that be announced? Presumably after August 15?

Lisa Hirsch said...

Thanks!

Good question about the Met cancellations. Is Aug. 15 when single tickets go on sale?

I would buy one to Rheingold and Walkuere anyway. I like Runnicles's Wagner better than Levine's, am more interested in the Met Ring for the production.