Following last month’s performances by Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony in Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, his last subscription concerts with the orchestra that he served as music director for decades, Joshua Kosman, music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, looks back on the conductor’s impact on the orchestra, its audience, and himself.
MTT has been a rare figure on the modern symphonic scene, continuing to lead the same orchestra for 25 years (1995-2020), a tenure comparable with those of Serge Koussevitzky at the Boston Symphony and Eugene Ormandy at the Philadelphia Orchestra.
“Some two-thirds of the current Symphony roster was either hired by him or have been present throughout his tenure, which means that the specific artistic personality of the orchestra – its values, its interpretive strategies, its willingness to combine technical discipline with freedom – will outlast Thomas by at least a generation,” Kosman notes.
“It was Thomas who set the tone for the weekly Symphony concerts around which my entire schedule revolved. It was he who provided fodder for me to engage with, think about and delight in.”
http://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/sf-symphony-michael-tilson-thomas-18640706.php
(via http://artsjournal.com)
Letter V 