Richard alerted me to the death of James Levine, the former music director of the Metropolitan Opera. It's a shame that his exit from the Met was marred by some truly icky sexual misconduct allegations because he was an extraordinary conductor and one of the most important figures in Met history.
I heard him conduct many times, but the first time was the most memorable. It was in 1999, on a visit to New York, Schoenberg's *Moses und Aron.* I had never heard such luminous playing out of an orchestra, it was sublime.
Here's a sweet 60 Minutes profile from 2015, right before things turned ugly:
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