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James Levine

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Baroque and beyond

Betting on the best this fall
Ten-best lists usually come at the end of the season, but this year the Phoenix has asked its critics to provide a calendar of 10 events that, at least on paper, might wind up on an end-of-season Top 10. Boston, in case you didn't know it, is a great city for classical music, so it's not easy to keep the list short. But here goes.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  September 14, 2009
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French kiss

What we don't get in Boston
Productions I attended at the Opéra and Opéra Comique would be rare in New York, let alone Boston — though some of the performers would be familiar.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  July 10, 2009
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Ducks and dicks

The ART revisits early Mamet
If the American Repertory Theatre is renewing its vows to David Mamet, several of whose plays it premiered in the 1990s, the double bill of The Duck Variations and Sexual Perversity in Chicago will do nicely for something old and something blue.
By CAROLYN CLAY  |  June 16, 2009
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Trail of tunes

Music al fresco at summer fests
The best summer music festivals take something from the season: the smell of the surf, the sight of the mountains, fireworks, lawn seating — or, at least, fried dough.
By CLEA SIMON  |  June 09, 2009
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Beloved of God

Levine's Mozart with the BSO, plus Gabriela Montero and Benjamin Zander with the Boston Philharmonic
One of my most profound musical experiences took place when I was still a graduate student.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  February 26, 2009
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Noble melody

James Levine brings us Verdi's Simon Boccanegra ; plus Christian Tetzlaff and Leif Ove Andsnes
For the first time since James Levine became music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, this acclaimed Verdi specialist conducted the BSO in a Verdi opera.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  February 03, 2009
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Anniversaries and other occasions

Masur's Mendelssohn, Orfeos from Norrington and Levine, the Discovery Ensemble, and the Inauguration 'performance'
Anniversaries, however fabricated, can still be useful. This year commemorates the 200th birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, the 150th birthday of Victor Herbert (both recently celebrated with intensive "orgies" on WHRB), the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death, and the 250th anniversary of Handel's death.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  January 27, 2009
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Lift every voice!

Classical goodies for 2009
Opera is the big word for 2009.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  December 30, 2008
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Year in Classical: Celebrate!

Comings and goings
In Handel's Hercules, the demented Dejanira's loss is still so painful, I was afraid to listen; now I don't want to hear anything else.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  December 22, 2008
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Phenomenal!

Elliott Carter turns 100
Living for a century is still a milestone; for a great and still-productive artist to do so is virtually unheard of.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  December 19, 2008
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Isn’t it rich?

Sondheim and Follies , the BSO’s French evening, and Boston Baroque’s Xerxes
The biggest musical celebrity in town last week was Broadway great Stephen Sondheim, who filled Northeastern University’s Blackman Hall “in conversation” with his long-time associate, producer/composer Sean Patrick Flahaven.  
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  November 03, 2008
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Magic bullets

Maurizio Pollini returns to the BSO; Opera Boston’s Der Freischütz
Last week’s Boston Symphony Orchestra program looked odd on paper, but the concert was a knockout.  
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  October 24, 2008
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Old and new

Leon Fleisher at 80, Harry Christophers with the Handel and Haydn Society, André Previn and James Levine at the BSO
There was hardly a concert I was more eager to hear than the Celebrity Series of Boston’s celebration of pianist Leon Fleisher’s 80th birthday.  
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  October 16, 2008
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Opening pitch

James Levine’s gala and Brahms, Russell Sherman’s Liszt, the Bostonians’ Kurt Weill
The most moving moment of this year’s Boston Symphony Orchestra opening gala came before the concert started — the standing ovation for James Levine, who looked rested and recuperated after his kidney surgery this summer, an operation that forced him to cancel most of his Tanglewood season.  
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  October 01, 2008
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Russian, Spanish, American . . .

Music in all accents comes to the concert halls
What everyone is looking forward to this fall is the return to the podium of Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  September 11, 2008
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Night music

The Pops aces Sondheim
Classic musicals make substantial enterprises —this is now the best thing the Pops does.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  July 01, 2008

Our bad

Letters to the Boston editor, May 30, 2008
As the Curator in Chief of the Museum of Bad Art, I would like to thank Ian Sands and the Boston Phoenix for the article about the opening of our new gallery in the Somerville Theatre.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS  |  May 28, 2008
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Epic undertaking

Berlioz’s Les Troyens at the BSO; Opera Boston attempts Verdi’s Ernani
The act four sequence of quintet, septet, and love duet is non-stop musical orgasm.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  May 12, 2008
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Orpheus in the afterworld

Harbison and Mahler at the BSO, and the return of Dubravka Tomsic
Tomsic’s last Boston recital was four years ago. We can’t afford to be without her this long.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  April 22, 2008
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All over again

Brahms from Levine and Kissin, Emmanuel’s Bach B-minor Mass, the Cantata Singers’ Kurt Weill cabaret
The Boston Symphony Orchestra program for last week’s four concerts was a familiar one.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  April 15, 2008
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Passion-less

Bernard Haitink and the BSO; Dominique Labelle with the Handel and Haydn Society
If the St. John Passion is Bach’s equivalent of lesser Shakespeare, the St. Matthew Passion is Bach’s King Lear.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  April 02, 2008
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Singers’ delight

Spring Arts Preview: Opera and vocal works lead the season
The season may be starting to wind down, but there remain some events music lovers have been waiting for all year.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  March 10, 2008
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The marriage of Heaven and Hell

Levine’s Schubert and Bolcom, Boston Baroque’s King Arthur, Jan Curtis
It’s been a joy to see James Levine back on the Symphony Hall podium, with his admirable combination of vitality and sensitivity.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  March 07, 2008
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Conquering heroes

Winterreise  from Thomas Quasthoff and James Levine, the Cecilia’s Handel, Levine’s return, Brendel’s farewell
One sign of Boston’s rich classical-music scene is that there are often hard choices to make when two outstanding events are scheduled at the same time.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  February 29, 2008
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Russians on the run

Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra at Sanders Theatre, February 24, 2008
Zander balanced the pathos and the passion here the way you have to balance the rose and the distaff/thorn in The Sleeping Beauty , and that was no small thing.  
By JEFFREY GANTZ  |  February 26, 2008
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Unembarrassed riches

Dutoit and Elder at the BSO, Collage’s Berio, Boston Conservatory’s Turn of the Screw, and Kurt Weill at the Gardner and the MFA
Some weeks Boston has such musical riches, one wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  February 21, 2008
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Pass the Hollandaise

Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw at Symphony Hall, February 1, 2008
The first LP I ever bought, way back in 1963, offered Chopin’s E-minor piano concerto performed by obscure artists.
By JEFFREY GANTZ  |  January 30, 2009
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Too much too soon?

Classical goodies for 2008
Two of the most exciting concerts announced for this winter are on the same date, February 24.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  January 31, 2008
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Love and loss

Classical: 2007 in review
Boston’s biggest classical-music story this year was also its saddest.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  December 18, 2007
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Hot and cold

More French music plus Osvaldo Golijov at the BSO; Sarasa’s warm tribute to Craig Smith
James Levine’s second French program this season with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was more compelling than the one with which he began the season.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ  |  December 11, 2007

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