James Levine: a Celebration in Music.(Sound Recording Review)

* "JAMES LEVINE: A CELEBRATION IN MUSIC" Orchestral music of Brahms, Mozart, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Stravinsky Wagner, Webern et al. Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Levine. Deutsche Grammophon 474 485-2 (4)

This four-disc set from Deutsche Grammophon, paying tribute to James Levine on his sixtieth birthday, is a landmark compilation. Levine's monolithic status as an opera conductor tends to obscure his extra-ordinary prowess with the symphonic repertoire, even though he has been presenting his own magnificently fine-tuned MET Orchestra in concerts at Carnegie Hall since 1991 This brilliant set of orchestral performances is an exhilarating testament to the slighty less familiar side of Levine's artistry; it also reminds us that, apart from the Met, Levine has had long associations with the Chicago Symphony and the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras. Each of these four estimable ensembles gets an entire disc to itself.

The first work on disc one--Prokofiev's mighty Fifth Symphony, performed by the Chicago Symphony--sets the standard immediately. Prokofiev's opening Andante is a sprawling, majestic movement, but in Levine's hands it's supple, fleet and full of unexpected shapeliness. It has the kind of pacing and dramatic sweep one would expect from a man of the theater, and the climactic passages are electric. In the Scherzo movement, the lines fly by, but they have subtle contours--Levine doesn't miss a single detail. The arching melodies of the third movement sound vocal and enticing. This movement can become inert in the wrong hands, but ...