By Ronald Blum
The Associated Press

Mahler's Ninth Symphony often is used for farewells, and the Metropolitan Opera's final performance of the season in New York was a goodbye of sorts.

After 18 seasons as artistic director of the Met, Cincinnati native James Levine is jettisoning the title in favor of music director, his position from 1976-86. It remains to be seen whether the change in job description, which occurs next season as he also becomes music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, leads to any transformation at the Met, where he has been the leading force since 1973.

Levine, whose Met contract has just been extended through the 2010-11 season, has a majestic, almost Wagnerian view of Mahler, favoring grandeur over emotion. Sunday's performance at Carnegie Hall clocked in at just over 90 minutes - four minutes faster than his March 2001 concert with the Met orchestra at Carnegie but still slower than most renditions. The fourth movement adagio - Mahler said it should end beyond "adagissimo," the slowest possible - stretched for 311/2 minutes, 31/2 minutes shorter than his 2001 version.

Listening to the music come to a crawl, it was breathtaking if not entirely convincing. For once, the audience responded with the space the piece deserves, waiting 15 seconds after the final note before beginning a six-minute standing ovation.

Levine, conducting from a chair on the podium, energetically led his orchestra, and following a Ring Cycle in which the horns occasionally showed signs of unsteadiness, they glowed here.

Like a father, Levine applauded his players with pride.