and george zell said to me, you should conduct certain piece, it was at that moment the moz ard g minory do it well until after you are 40 but do it now. >> rose: exactly. >> and i understood what he meant. he meant don't try to crack it for yourself new later on down the road. and i was that way with some pieces. and i was always a person, charlie, who i know what i know. but what i don't know is a closed book to me. i never was happy with superficial knowledge. and i could never just go and hear a performance and feel i was close to the piece at all without really looking at the score, really hearing the performances, really living with it for a while. >> rose: and to do that, are you deep into interpretation in terms of where the composer was at that moment, at that time and what was in his head? >> yes, i'm into all the things that it takes to try to get as close to what the composer would want were he alive-- alive today. >> this is a pbs documentary, james levine american mice row in which young de-- maestro being conducted by george zell. >> and for-- every piece of music should

. >> this is a pbs documentary in which the young levine is being instructed by his mentor george zell piece should start inside the player before he plays the first note. he is a one-man orchestra which makes things a little less complicated. ♪ >> out of long experience, i tell you, the shorter your down the will be, the more precise your up the can be a little bigger than the downbeat if you do. this, about an inch. ♪ ♪ >> you got more handsome with age, mr. levine. >> if my cheeks start to tremble -- he was something else. >> what he meant to you, woody gave to you. he was -- what he gave to you. >> he was the epitome of a classic repertoire. he built, he became music director of the cleveland orchestra in the middle 40's. he was also conducting at the met third he conducted several seasons at the met. in cleveland, he had the opportunity to build a european-style, classical european orchestra in america with americans. he was, when i was a student, we used to go near all the visiting orchestras that came to carnegie hall, but one orchestra, my friends and i always had to go to all