Michael Tilson Thomas was mentored by Leonard Bernstein, and shares that conductor’s passion for educating the public about orchestral music
SINCE ITS founding in 1911, the San Francisco Symphony orchestra has had many excellent music directors, but none quite as charismatic and beloved—nor who have left as profound a mark—as Michael Tilson Thomas.
An inaugural “American Festival” set the tone. Mr Thomas brought members of the Grateful Dead, a rock band, onstage to interpret the music of John Cage; in 2000 the orchestra played with Metallica, a heavy-metal group. Throughout his 25-year tenure, the longest of any American conductor, he introduced audiences to new music by contemporary composers such as John Adams, Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles and Meredith Monk.
Some performances of well-known works pack tremendous emotional force and appear “whipped up in that moment, just for me and my fellow listeners, like some kind of artisanal table-side meal prep,” Mr Kosman recently wrote, describing a performance of Mahler’s First Symphony at which he “inexplicably burst into tears”. Your correspondent recalls a Dvorak cello concerto in which her heart seemed to explode from her chest.
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