Levine returns, changed

He looks thinner and healthier in the pictures. He says his encounter with cancer has changed him, deepening his outlook on music and life. That's the word from Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director James Levine in advance of his return to the Symphony Hall stage on Wednesday. Levine, who had a kidney removed on July 15, returned to the Metropolitan Opera stage last Thursday night. Read his words to the Globe here, and to the New York Times here.