In and out

Maestro James Levine continued his (unfortunate, and surely painful) recent pattern of canceling an average of one performance a week last night when he dropped out of the Boston’s Symphony’s performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.

An onlooker at Wednesday night’s rehearsal (open to an audience with reduced-price tickets) reports:

I was at the Wednesday night rehearsal with Levine conducting. His physical condition was shocking. Using a walker to enter, he had difficulty getting into his chair. Once seated, he had great
difficulty conducting. His legs were moving uncontrollably, his arm motions were wild, he continually twisted back and forth in his chair. After conducting most of the first movement, the orchestra took a half hour break. They came back and only played snippets from the remaining movements, with Mr. Levine spending the last 20 minutes of rehearsal just talking to the orchestra. His verbal musical input to the orchestra was spot on, but he struggled to communicate physically. When he turned to speak to the audience, his body twisted sideways.