The melancholy news came today that James Levine will resign his post as the music director of the Boston Symphony at the end of the current season. He just withdrew from his only remaining regular-season concerts; one assumes that he will make farewell appearances at Tanglewood next summer, health permitting. It's a sadly premature ending to a tenure that began with great promise, as I reported in the New Yorker in 2004. Levine seems determined to focus on his Met commitments, most crucially the new Ring cycle. Boston, meanwhile, has announced the formation of a search committee for a new music director. Jeremy Eichler sums up the abbreviated Levine era.
