The joy in Boston

James Levine's challenging programs of atonal music are arousing unexpected enthusiasm in Boston. No, wait, wrong pictures. We'll go back to music shortly. Here are my observations on the Red Sox World Series victory: "YOW! WOOOO!!!! YEEAAAH!!!" My mother grew up in Boston, and, as you can tell from the souvenirs below, attended the 1946 World Series. I was here for the unspeakable events of 1986. An obscure wound is healed, to take a phrase from rabid Sox fan Henry James. It seems kind of absurd that I am here to attend a concert of Mozart, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Ligeti. Then again, as Joseph Horowitz notes in his forthcoming history of American classical music, Isabella Stewart Gardner used to wear a Red Sox headband to Boston Symphony concerts.