There certainly is room for tyranny in conducting, and many great conductors - especially of the past - have been famously tyrannical on the job. But that didn't mean they behaved that way off the job. Toscanini, though no paragon in his private life, was particularly emphatic about the difference, and he had to be considering the tantrums he'd throw in rehearsal.
But nothing that I've read about Levine suggests that he was abusive on the podium. Instead, the driving force behind covering up his abuses off the podium was how talented and beloved he was on it. We can certainly refuse to listen to Levine if we cannot separate the man from the art (though, now that he's dead, the fact that he won't be getting any royalties from it takes away a major reason for refusing to separate. I wouldn't want to eschew the work of the long-dead Wagner or Beethoven because they were monstrous human beings.) But the fact that conducting can be pursued abusively doesn't mean that even an otherwise abusive person did so.
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Date: 2021-03-20 02:25 pm (UTC)But nothing that I've read about Levine suggests that he was abusive on the podium. Instead, the driving force behind covering up his abuses off the podium was how talented and beloved he was on it. We can certainly refuse to listen to Levine if we cannot separate the man from the art (though, now that he's dead, the fact that he won't be getting any royalties from it takes away a major reason for refusing to separate. I wouldn't want to eschew the work of the long-dead Wagner or Beethoven because they were monstrous human beings.) But the fact that conducting can be pursued abusively doesn't mean that even an otherwise abusive person did so.