Another laurel for Levine

James Levine's installation as the director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra resembled a coronation.

James Levine's installation as the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra resembled a coronation. Red carpet covered the sidewalk outside Symphony Hall on Friday night and much of the audience sparkled in evening gowns, jewels and dinner jackets.

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A grand piece was chosen for the occasion, Mahler's Eighth, the Symphony of a Thousand, showcasing the orchestra, its restored organ, two choruses and many of the top singers who appear with Levine at the Metropolitan Opera, where he has reigned since 1973. A champagne reception preceded the event and dinner, filled with praise and a toast, followed in a hotel ballroom nearby. Even before the first note, the 61-year-old maestro was greeted with a 30-second standing ovation, touching his right hand to his heart in appreciation.

"What can I say to this?" Levine told the crowd during the dinner. "I love the tradition of this city."

He is the 14th music director in the orchestra's history and the first born in the United States. And he is the first new music director for the BSO since Seiji Ozawa arrived in 1973 for a run that lasted 29 years. The BSO wanted Levine so badly that it when it hired him in 2001, the orchestra agreed to wait three years for him to take over, until his contract as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic expired.

So now that the fanfare is over, what is the BSO getting? A new vantage point, both for the audience and the players. Levine immediately rearranged the orchestra's seating to the same arrangement he uses at the Met, moving the second violins from the left side to the right. Bothered by sciatica, he conducts on a chair, as he does in New York, and he cues primarily with his right hand, saving his left, which occasionally has been hampered by tremors, for big moments.