Arriving onstage in a motorized wheelchair, Met music director James Levine returned to the podium Sunday afternoon for the first time in more than two years.
And the question on everyone’s lips at Carnegie Hall was, “Is Jimmy back in form?” The answer, after a nearly three-hour program featuring the Met Opera orchestra and piano soloist Evgeny Kissin, was “yes, maybe.”
The concert followed two seasons of canceled performances after a fall in August 2011, which required surgery and left him partially paralyzed.
In October 2012, Levine’s doctors confirmed a diagnosis of mild Parkinson’s disease, aggravated by chronic pain.
At this, his first concert in two years, the 69-year-old conductor’s gestures looked stiff but firm, and the orchestra played for the most part with precise vigor.
Nevertheless, there were a few bumps along the way. After a silky opening to Wagner’s “Lohengrin” prelude, the orchestra slowed to a crawl for the final moments, with strings scraping out of tune. Both Schubert’s “Great” Symphony and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 seemed hard, almost militant, in contrast to Kissin’s suave solos.
Overall, the concert gave no definitive answer to whether Levine was up to conducting full time. That will happen starting this fall at the Met, where he’s scheduled to lead Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte” in September, with two more operas to follow later in the season.
At the very least, the cheers at Carnegie Hall can reassure Levine that the audience is on his side.