Dialogues and Discoveries: James Levine: His Life and His Music

Levine, the bushy-haired wunderkind who has been a mainstay at the Metropolitan Opera for 20 years, and is a major player on the international operatic and orchestral scene, certainly needs a book about him, but this isn't the one. Marsh, a veteran music journalist and critic who has been a friend of Levine's for 25 years, is simply too worshipful. He characterizes his subject as not only ""the most important American conductor"" but also ""the greatest accompanist since Gerald Moore,"" a man who apparently exudes love and skill from every pore and has a ""smile as big as Manhattan."" Much of the book is taken up with long dialogues, in which Marsh himself makes most of the running commentary and Levine acts as his dutiful straight man. There are sketches of Levine at work at the Ravinia Summer Festival, which he led for many years with the Chicago Symphony, and conducting the Three Tenors extravaganzas at the Met--including the interminable 1996 gala tribute to him, from which Marsh has culled almost verbatim every flowery compliment paid by an army of singers. Levine is an extraordinarily accomplished musician who is a true original in many ways, and about whom surprisingly little is known. A reader of Marsh's book may well be amazed at his body of work, his seeming saintliness--but will still know little about Levine beyond the fact that he was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, revered Georg Szell and sports a towel to rehearsals. Photos not seen by PW, discography. (Oct.)