Search - Debussy, Elgar, Levine :: Images Pour Orchestre / Enigma Variations

Levine's overlooked mastery

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My musical mea culpa begins with confessing that I've overlooked James Levine as an orchestral conductor for at least twenty years. Only after he took over the Boston Symphony two years ago did I realize that Levine, long associated with opera, is a master at many other kinds of music. This CD is a case in point: no Debussy specialist, from Munch and Ansermet to Boulez, has made a more precise, perfectly balanced recording of Debussy's Images.



For years I had disliked this work, having heard it pushed and pulled around, subjected to fussiness and hazy impressionism. Levine conducts it very straight, not trying for hazy atmospherics, and suddenly the sprawling structure and constant changes of color and tempo sound natural. I don't feel like swooning. The Berlin Phil. plays phenomenally, and the recorded sound is exemplary.



The very odd pairing for the Debussy is Elgar's Enigma Variations, of which there are dozens of recordings. Few American conductors have recorded this cornerstone of English music, however, and Levine doesn't try to trump the Boult-Barbirolli-Rattle style, the way Bernstein did in his ultra-expressive DG recording. Again Levine plays the work straight with special emphasis on orchestral polish. It's a different performance, very un-English. Altogether, I loved this CD and am trying to make up for my oversight by collecting as many Levine orchestral recordings as possible."