James Levine Quotations

Where my tastes in music are concerned, I'm a real maximalist.

What's interesting is that both men and women are struggling with this issue in remarkably similar percentages, but the big difference is that women tend to talk about this when men keep it silent.

Women tend to have recognition and peer group support - recognition from friends and family that this has to be a big issue in their lives. They're more comfortable expressing the need for support and receiving it.

My 40th year will be '10-11 and we will have another two years to go to complete the new Ring, and I committed to Peter that I would stay that long in any case.

I find it always sad when there's something that means a lot to me in music and there are people who can't get the exposure to it ever to understand it, let alone love it.

When they are performing in front of the public, they ought to have a sensation that's relatively easy, if the technical and the interpretive work was done before.

We do not seem to be finding tomorrow's Toscas.

Birgit was unique! Her voice, her artistry, her sense of humor and her friendship were in a class of their own. I was so fortunate to hear her sing many times over the years, and eventually to work with her on several memorable occasions with Wagner and Strauss.

People are turning away from the more formal, traditionally posed wedding photos to a more intimate and natural approach,

The more I work on his pieces, I find that their fundamental life energy is irresistible, and it increases. It's such marvelous music, with such personality, thought and care and detail. We have a number of very marvelous composers, but to see Elliott at this age so enthusiastic, wanting to do it and being able to do it, is amazing.

It's just that, when the orchestra look at me, I want them to see a completely involved person who reflects what we rehearsed, and whose function is to make it possible for them to do it.

You try on purpose to get players with different qualities which will rub off on one another.

They've really got to recognize that all of us bring some of our family issues to work and our work home.

The invisible dilemma is that men face the very real problem that they don't feel comfortable bringing these issues up and they tend not to be acknowledged at work.

If you factor in not just who's doing what at home, but how much more time working fathers are spending on work outside the home, on average they spend two hours more per day outside the home.

I really recommend the following. Before you're going to hear a piece, any piece, for the first time, don't do anything. Just go an hour early and read the program notes. Then you have some idea about how long it is, the instrumentation, what the idea of it is, the pure general shell. Then, when the piece is played, don't fight with it. Listen to it. And if you find anything that fascinates you, then here's the important thing: Go hear it again, soon.

It has to be able to play at the maximum expression and communication in every style, and the only way you can do that is - like Verdi said - working with a file, every day, little by little, until the orchestra's collective qualities emerge.

I'd rather they come an hour before and read the program notes, so that they have some slight introduction to what they're going to hear. Then I recommend the most important thing of all. Listen, don't fight.

All you have to do is ask any child, frankly. You don't have to ask a child development researcher if fathers make a difference. All kids will tell you that the presence of a father makes a big difference.

And so, little by little, I gradually divested myself of pretty nearly all of the guest conducting I used to do, because I was at the same time working in the places like the Met, where I could work in this sort of depth.

Employee fathers need to step up to the plate and put their family needs on the table.

At my age, you are naturally inclined towards teaching.

As major orchestras around the world are gripped in various kinds of crises and upheaval, we need to be sure that we are bringing up this new generation.

Art has never been a popularity contest.

I thought I'd write one book and the world would change overnight

My hunch is that probably men are doing more both outside the home and inside the home

It wasn't that I ever knew I'd be at the Met for 20 years, or 30 years, or 40 years, or anything like that

I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment

It was just that we had this phenomenal honeymoon relationship that just kept on going.

We found that when people put this issue on the table, it turns out that men acknowledge the issue, and employers and employees can work out solutions just as working mothers do.

More and more couples are having this negotiation or discussion, but I'm still amazed at the number who aren't and where the cultural norm sort of kicks in and they just assume that mom's got to be the one who stays home, not dad.

Most people treat the office manual the way they treat a software manual. They never look at it.

There is no relationship between the gestures and what an orchestra will do.

Second, if you're the boss, just because they don't ask doesn't mean your employees don't have needs.

But the important thing is to lie down and fall asleep. That little nap means you wake up fresh again and can continue.

Fate is a misplaced retreat. Many people rationalize an unexplained event as fate and shrug their shoulders when it occurs. But that is not what fate is. The world operates as a series of circles that are invisible, for they extend to the upper air. Fate is where these circles cut to earth. Since we cannot see them, do not know their content, and have no sense of their width, it is impossible to predict when these cuts will slice into our reality. When this happens, we call it fate. Fate is not a chance event but one that is inevitable, we are simply blind to its nature and time.

We're in the midst of an evolution, not a revolution.

Everybody blames the culture without taking responsibility.

And, over the last thirty years we have seen men's participation in both housework and childcare has increased and women's have stayed at about the same.

Working mothers do an hour more per day than working fathers do and working mothers do on average an hour more per day with the kids than working fathers do.

I think this orchestra's strengths involve drama and voice.

I have a big problem with conductors who gesture a lot.

I can imagine wanting to work with this ensemble and this company always.

Great cataclysmic things can go by and neither the orchestra nor the conductor are under the delusion that whether they make this or that gesture is going to be the deciding factor in how it comes out.

The Steinway pianos of today are the finest I have ever played.

So, the total number of hours spent on the stuff you have to do to take care of a family, working and caring for stuff at home, the total number of hours is actually about the same for mothers and fathers.

Its just that, when the orchestra look at me, I want them to see a completely involved person who reflects what we rehearsed, and whose function is to make it possible for them to do it.

I grew up in an era where an orchestra was like a treasure chest

A lot of people get impatient with the pace of change.