Recordings

Adam: Music from Giselle

Adams: Absolute Jest & Grand Pianola Music

2015

Adams: Absolute Jest & Grand Pianola Music

Adams: Harmonielehre, Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Adams: Harmonielehre, Short Ride in a Fast Machine

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Repertoire
John Adams: Harmonielehre
John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine

*GRAMMY® winner for Best Orchestral Performance

The SFS commissioned, premiered, and recorded Harmonielehre in March 1985 under Edo De Waart during Adams’ tenure as SFS Composer-in-Residence. Michael Tilson Thomas, who conducted the work during his first season as SFS Music Director in 1995 and multiple times since, said of the work, “When a new piece is premiered, it can make a stunning impression. But the real story of that piece is what emerges over time. When the SFS first performed Harmonielehre in the mid-80s it was a life changing moment for everybody who heard it. I heard it first on the recording and I was drawn into the piece in so many ways, its enormous power, but also its tenderness and depth of expression. And now, decades later, the piece still stands up.”

I was a young composer when I wrote Harmonielehre and I had really only written two other orchestra pieces at that point and one of them was Harmonium, which was premiered by the San Francisco Symphony only a few years before that. Harmonielehre was tough coming out… I was searching for what I wanted to say. I knew that part of what I wanted to write for the orchestra was a music that would kind of strum the strings of its repertoire that would play to its strengths… [with Harmonielehre] I really confronted who I was, who I am, John Adams as a composer - somebody who grew up listening to classical music, classical orchestral music, who played in orchestras when I was younger, who conducted, who loved that repertoire, but at the same time was somebody who also grew up listening to jazz and rock and who was very influenced by minimalism. So it’s this rather strange marriage of the driving pulse of American minimalism and the sensuous and emotional and expressive world of the great European masterpieces.”
John Adams

MTT commissioned Short Ride in a Fast Machine from John Adams in 1986 for a Pittsburgh Symphony performance in Massachusetts. Adams shared, In September 2011 MTT and the San Francisco Symphony capped their Centennial Season Opening Gala program with an orchestral and multimedia performance of Short Ride in a Fast Machine.

“Michael called me back in 1986 when he was opening a new music festival in Massachusetts with the Pittsburgh Symphony and he asked me to do a fanfare. The sort of traditional fanfare with blaring trumpets didn’t really appeal to me, and how do you write a fanfare when Copland has already done it so well? I thought about it and for some reason the connection with Cape Cod came to mind. Years before that I had been there with a former brother-in-law and he had asked me at about 1 in the morning if I would like to take a ride with him in his Lamborghini. I did and once he started up I wished I hadn’t because he drove very, very fast. The idea of a piece that had that combination of excitement and thrill and was just on the edge of anxiety or terror was the motivating force for [Short Ride in a Fast Machine.] The piece starts with the click of the wood block and that wood block never changes, it just keeps driving and it’s sort of like a gauntlet through which a 100-piece orchestra has to pass.”
John Adams

American Mavericks: Cowell, Harrison, Varèse

American Mavericks: Cowell, Harrison, Varèse

Bach-Schoenberg, Brahms-Schoenberg

1986

Bach-Schoenberg, Brahms-Schoenberg

Bainbridge: Fantasia for Double Orchestra, Viola Concerto

2006

Bainbridge: Fantasia for Double Orchestra, Viola Concerto

Barber: Adagio; Knoxville: Summer of 1915

2008

Barber: Adagio; Knoxville: Summer of 1915

Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, Rhapsody

Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, Rhapsody

Bates: Works for Orchestra

2016

Bates: Works for Orchestra

Beethoven: Late Choral Music

Beethoven: Late Choral Music

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5, Piano Concerto No. 4

2011

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5, Piano Concerto No. 4

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, Leonore Overture No. 3

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, Leonore Overture No. 3

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

2013

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica", Contredanses

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica", Contredanses

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral"

1979

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral"

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9

1987

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9

Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra

2017

Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra

Berg: Violin Concerto, Seven Early Songs, and Three Pieces for Orchestra

2021

Berg: Violin Concerto, Seven Early Songs, and Three Pieces for Orchestra

Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette

2018

Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Lelio

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Lelio

Bernstein: Arias and Barcarolles

2018

Bernstein: Arias and Barcarolles

Bernstein: Arias and Barcarolles

Bernstein: On The Town

Bernstein: On The Town

London Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Repertoire
Leonard Bernstein: On The Town

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the London Symphony Orchestra and an all-star, crossover cast of opera and theater performers in a semi-staged concert version produced by Deutsche Grammophon and recorded for both CD and video release. Participants include Frederica von Stade, Thomas Hampson, Tyne Daly, Cleo Laine, David Garrison, Samuel Ramey, and, as both narrators and performers, Comden and Green themselves. The resulting recordings included material cut at various stages of the musical’s development. Thomas revived this concert edition of the work in 1996 with the San Francisco Symphony, with many of the same performers.

On The Town is a musical with music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, based on Jerome Robbins’ idea for his 1944 ballet Fancy Free, which he had set to Bernstein’s music. The musical introduced several popular and classic songs, among them “New York, New York”, “Lonely Town”, “I Can Cook, Too” (for which Bernstein also wrote the lyrics), and “Some Other Time”. The story concerns three American sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City during wartime 1944. Each of the three sailors meets and quickly connects with a woman.

On The Town was first produced on Broadway in 1944 and was made into a film in 1949, although the film replaced all but three of the original Broadway songs with Hollywood-written substitutes. The show has enjoyed a number of major revivals. The musical integrates dance into its storytelling: Robbins made a number of ballets and extended dance sequences for the show, including the “Imaginary Coney Island” ballet.

Three sailors on shore leave chasing after women in the Big City--that's the premise for On the Town, the brilliant, innovative, and electrically vibrant 1944 show by Leonard Bernstein (and Jerome Robbins, Adolph Green, and Betty Comden) that literally overflows with great songs and dance music. This version features a strong cast and three numbers cut from the New York premiere. It's well worth a visit.
David Vernier

Brahms: Serenade No. 1, Tragic & Academic Festival Overtures

Brahms: Serenade No. 1, Tragic & Academic Festival Overtures

Brahms: Serenade No. 2

1992

Brahms: Serenade No. 2

Brant: Ice Field

2019

Brant: Ice Field

Copland: Clarinet Concerto; Bernstein: Sonata for Clarinet; Gershwin: Three Preludes

Copland: Clarinet Concerto; Bernstein: Sonata for Clarinet; Gershwin: Three Preludes

Copland: Old American Songs, Canticle Of Freedom, Four Motets

Copland: Old American Songs, Canticle Of Freedom, Four Motets

Copland: Symphony No. 3

2020

Copland: Symphony No. 3

Copland: The Modernist

1995

Copland: The Modernist

Copland: The Populist

2000

Copland: The Populist

Costello: Il Sogno

Costello: Il Sogno

Dahl: Defining Dahl

1995

Dahl: Defining Dahl

Debussy: Images, Jeux, La plus que lente

2016

Debussy: Images, Jeux, La plus que lente

Debussy: La Mer, La Boîte à joujoux (Children's Ballet), Prélude à l'áprès-midi d'un faune

Debussy: La Mer, La Boîte à joujoux (Children's Ballet), Prélude à l'áprès-midi d'un faune

Debussy: La Mer, Nocturnes

Debussy: La Mer, Nocturnes

Debussy: Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien

Debussy: Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien

Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune; Violin Sonata; Cello Sonata; Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp; Syrinx

Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune; Violin Sonata; Cello Sonata; Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp; Syrinx

Dvořák: The American Flag, "American" Suite

1976

Dvořák: The American Flag, "American" Suite

Erb: Music For Instruments & Electronic Sounds

1969

Erb: Music For Instruments & Electronic Sounds

Feldman: Coptic Light

Feldman: Coptic Light

Gershwin Live!

1982

Gershwin Live!

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue - An American in Paris, Broadway Overtures, Gershwin Piano Roll

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue - An American in Paris, Broadway Overtures, Gershwin Piano Roll

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, Second Rhapsody For Orchestra with Piano, Preludes

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, Second Rhapsody For Orchestra with Piano, Preludes

Gershwin: The 100th Birthday Celebration

Gershwin: The 100th Birthday Celebration

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor, piano
Audra McDonald, soprano
Brian Stokes Mitchell, baritone

Repertoire
George Gershwin: Catfish Row Suite
George Gershwin: Second Rhapsody for Orchestra with Piano
George Gershwin: An American in Paris
George Gershwin: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra’s celebration of George Gershwin’s centenary takes the form of a two-CD set culled from two performances, comprising four separate pieces. The most impressive is the first, an extended version of “Catfish Row Suite,” Gershwin’s orchestral treatment of themes from Porgy and Bess (so titled to avoid confusion with Robert Russell Bennett’s Porgy and Bess suite), with interpolations of several songs from the opera, sung by Broadway stars Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell. Both singers are well suited to the material, and Mitchell in particular gets into the different parts; it’s hard to believe the singer on “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” and “There’s a Boat Dat’s Leavin’ Soon” is the same person. Purists may question the performance of the “Second Rhapsody” that follows, featuring conductor Michael Tilson Thomas on piano, since, as annotator David Wright puts it, “Following the precedent that was hinted at in Gershwin’s own recorded rehearsals of the work, Mr. Tilson Thomas has inserted a cadenza he has written in the Gershwin style.” Of course, there are different ways to approach this material, and if there were any doubt about that, it is dispelled in the orchestra’s relatively calm reading of “An American in Paris”; Tilson Thomas’ American is a leisurely tourist. Garrick Ohlsson sparks the orchestra with his piano playing on the “Concerto in F,” which concludes the album, bringing things almost up to the standard of the “Catfish Row Suite.”

Michael Tilson Thomas's Gershwin credentials are second to none, and include several recording premieres, most notably the first modern version of the original jazz band orchestration of Rhapsody in Blue (for Sony/Columbia). This new double-CD set offers an impressive selection of Gershwin favorites and rarities: the Second Rhapsody, with Tilson Thomas himself at the piano; An American in Paris; the Concerto in F, this time with Garrick Ohlssohn as soloist; and finally, Gershwin's own Catfish Row suite from Porgy and Bess, here fleshed out with the best and most popular songs from the opera, ably sung by Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell. As a tribute to America's most popular composer, these swinging, idiomatic performances are irresistible.
David Hurwitz

Gershwin: Of Thee I Sing, Let 'Em Eat Cake

1987

Gershwin: Of Thee I Sing, Let 'Em Eat Cake

Getty: Young America

Getty: Young America

Greatest Hits: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Liszt

1995

Greatest Hits: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Liszt

Holloway: Third Concerto for Orchestra

2000

Holloway: Third Concerto for Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Repertoire
Robin Holloway: Concerto for Orchestra, No. 1

Composer’s Note
“This piece was conceived ‘on the spot’ like an artist sketching, during a few weeks’ voyaging in South America, early in 1981. These instant sound pictures began almost at once to tend towards an overall plan. But this is difficult to reconstruct, since the bag containing all the jottings was stolen in La Paz and never recovered. And of course it proved impossible to remember notations made in the immediate presence of such vivid sights. The enforced ‘recollection in tranquillity’ over the 13 years of composition has surely changed them into something completely different.

During the long slow bus journey on from La Paz, I sketched out as much as I could retrieve of the overall shape. This journey also provided the inspiration for a further panel, in the wonderful blue of Lake Titicaca, the highest lake on earth, called by the Indians ‘the world’s navel’. The other panels are, in order of my encountering them, the flotilla of boats, bands, bells and booming sirens in the Bay of Bahia celebrating New Year’s Day, which gets into my finale; the four-day crossing by slow train (known as ‘the train of death’) of the Great Brazilian Swamp, which makes my first movement; and the unforgettably impressive sight, sound and mental impact of the Silver Mountain at Potosì, which makes my second.

The feature of the Great Swamp is its featurelessness – endless stagnating mud and vegetation, flights of birds, glitter of light on the still waters; and the only exception to the flatness, three strikingly different rock formations, rearing up out of the quagmire like something in a dream. The sight at Potosì was one of the most stirring I’ve ever seen. It was not beautiful; in fact it was an image of baleful ugliness, malign in its powerful suggestion of the perversion and exploitation of nature – the hill of treasure, like a gigantic slag heap, infernally active, sweating silver, excreting its wastes both liquid and solid, vomiting men in cages from deep within belly and bowels. Then came the high radiant lake, ‘navel of the world’; and finally the festivities on land and sea with every possible sound-source (including circulating helicopters) filling a vast hemispherical space with celebration and noise.

I was wildly excited by all four fused sound-images, and devastated by the loss of the spontaneous musical reactions, which were detailed and specific. At a loss literally as to how to write the piece without them. I knew it wanted to be a sizeable Concerto for Orchestra, following on from its predecessor which had received its first performance rather over a year before and was still ringing in my ears. But commissions for these don’t arrive every day; it was only in 1990 or so that the go-ahead came from the London Symphony Orchestra which caused me to pick up the tread and resume work which up till then had been desultory at best, at worst despairing. The work was completed at last in 1994.

And now that it is completed, I see that the delay could well have been advantageous. What I was trying for ‘on the spot’ was probably unrealisable (even with the gigantic orchestral forces – a southern hemisphere Amériques – that I had in mind). And it would probably have been too directly descriptive – too close, too dependent on the sensory inspiration. During the long years of recovering the theft, grinding away at material whose ungraspableness defeated the efforts again and again, the visual, metaphorical and even moral connotations have distanced, condensed and grown abstract. They are certainly still present – indeed, the surprise of this first performance is how immediately sensuous so much of the music remains. But such connotations are now fused into the purely musical workings, which are entirely their own subject, remorseless and implacable. The material is simplicity itself – the major third, in isolation and when piled upon itself to make a major/minor triad. Through the results can become extremely complex, the departure-point is as basic as this. Virtually nothing else is permitted; the piece is athematic, concerned only with organising its shifting textures into different kinds of momentum, journey, arrival. But of course the musical result of this deliberate renunciation of explicit scene-painting is charged with the force of the images that inspired it, and all their subsequent metaphorical ramifications.

The first movement is a sort of Prelude. The opening bars give a sound-glimpse of everything that is to be developed later, here buried in sluggish torpor. The rest of the movement begins to let it expand in a succession of textural contrasts. At their maximum density the three distinct rock-shapes stand out before the movement melts away.

They contain, locked tight, the substance of the second movement, Chaconne. Rather than a bass or a chord sequence, this is built upon a row of six musical ‘things’ – intervallic, timbral, tuned or unpitched percussion, and sometimes including a silence. This row is stated twice, slightly but significantly different, with complete nudity. The 42 ‘variations’ that follow are for their first two cycles sectional, featuring the orchestral choirs in the order exposed in the row – brass, woodwind, strings, percussion – with occasional tuttis. Motifs and textures from the first movement drift over; but only gradually as the music gathers speed and the scoring becomes fuller does it emerge that the whole thing is a horizontalisation of what in the first movement was vertical. An interim climax reaches a broad phrase of stolid dance-rhythm (already present in the piece’s very opening bars) that will eventually make the entire substance of the finale. But the real climax comes later, with the Chaconne’s constituents stacked up and grinding away in a pulverising search for issue.

The tension resolves obliquely into the shining lake of the third movement, which begins in bell-sounds alternating with free-floating cadenzas for the flutes, the clarinets, then the oboes, then the bassoons. (It is meant to be a concerto for orchestra!). The speed broadens to end the movement in a lyricised return of the three shapes from movement one – rock into water. After this the music sinks back into the primal swamp where it had begun.

But this time the seeds of the fourth movement, Finale, begin to sprout. It is a gradual accumulation on the slow-ish dance motif already heard, endlessly repeated in ever-expanding terraces of sound that build, peak, decline, disolve, and start all over again. The second tier gathers in music from movement three. The next, also mixing in elements from movements two and one, is driven to a threefold conclusion: the first falls below the right notes; the second (after a massive return of the work’s distant, soft opening) goes too high. After a silence, the Coda builds steadily up to the exact goal.”

Robin Holloway, 1996

Holloway's music is assertively atonal and if you are familiar with the music of Tippett, Rawsthorne, or Hoddinott you will take very well to this music. The Third Concerto for Orchestra is very recent--composed in 1994. It's atonal but not serial; textural rather than thematic. It's a true concerto for orchestra in that every instrument (and every instrument combination) gets a turn at bat and is, all the while, intellectually riveting. Clearly, the concerto for orchestra is a more adaptive format for Holloway's ideas than, say, the symphony and the performance of the LSO in first-rate.
Paul Cook

Ives: An American Journey

Ives: An American Journey

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Thomas Hampson, baritone
Vance George
Glenn Fischtal
San Francisco Girls Chorus

Repertoire
From the Steeples and the Mountains
The Things Our Fathers Loved
The Pond (Remembrance)
114 Songs: No. 102, Memories
Charlie Rutlage
The Circus Band
Orchestral Set No. 1 – 3 Places in New England: I. The St. Gaudens in Boston Common “Col. Shaw and His Colored Regiment”
Orchestral Set No. 1 – 3 Places in New England: II. Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut
Orchestral Set No. 1 – 3 Places in New England: III. The Housatonic at Stockbridge
In Flanders Fields
They are There!
Tom Sails Away
Symphony No. 4: III. Fugue
Psalm 100
Serenity
General William Booth Enters into Heaven
The Unanswered Question

...this is quite some journey. It lasts 65 minutes and one lifetime. If anyone has a hotline to the cortex of Ives’s imagination, it is Michael Tilson Thomas. The programme he has devised here is not so much a journey, more a stream of consciousness through the hinterlands of Ives Americana... Hard to believe that this is a live recording, so astonishingly lucid and transparent is the multilayered orchestral sound. Tremendous impact, too.
Gramophone

Michael Tilson Thomas always is worth hearing when he conducts Ives, and this disc is no exception. He recorded Three Places in New England for DG with the Boston Symphony, and that version (recently reissued on DG Originals) remains one of the finest available. For his new recording he has a unison chorus singing the words of "The Housatonic at Stockbridge", a fact made possible by Ives including a texted version of the piece in the collection he published privately as 114 Songs. Personally, I find it a pointless and unnecessary gimmick, but there's no denying that MTT conducts with his customary mastery, and Putnam's Camp, with its two brass bands crashing into one another, certainly ends with the necessary bang. The remainder of this collection includes a series of songs and orchestral movements, the most important of which is "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven", one of Ives' very greatest vocal works, here sung beautifully and idiomatically by Thomas Hampson, who projects his other numbers (including Memories and the hilarious Charlie Rutlage in Ives' own version for voice and orchestra) equally well. Aptly "cosmic", atmospheric performances of "The Unanswered Question" and "From the Steeples and Mountains" round out the program, though the inclusion of the third-movement fugue from the Fourth Symphony all by itself seems a bit strange. Fine sound, a bit light at the lower end, completes a very compelling overall picture.
Classics Today

Ives / Brant: A Concord Symphony & Copland: Organ Symphony

2011

Ives / Brant: A Concord Symphony & Copland: Organ Symphony

Ives: Holidays Symphony

Ives: Holidays Symphony

Ives: Holidays Symphony
Keeping Score

2009

Ives: Holidays Symphony
Keeping Score

Ives: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4

Ives: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4

Ives: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3, "The Camp Meeting"

Ives: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3, "The Camp Meeting"

Concertgebouw Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Repertoire
Charles Ives: Symphony No. 2
Charles Ives: Symphony No. 3 (The Camp Meeting)

For this symphony, Charles Ives drew upon material from earlier liturgical organ works. Though finished in 1904 and revised in 1909, the Third Symphony was not performed until 1946, subsequently winning the 1947 Pulitzer Prize. As with many of his works, it is difficult to construct a definitive or authoritative version, due to many conflicting manuscript sources. Ives was in the habit of revising his music in an almost improvisatory spirit, and he liked leaving choices of possible solutions up to the performer. The version we will hear tonight is based upon the published score of 1964 edited by Henry Cowell, but also takes into some account a new edition, by Kenneth Singleton, which has significant differences with Cowell’s edition. Most notable is the extreme dissonant counterpoint near the close of certain passages. Ives’ revisions sometimes amounted to going back and adding dissonance where he felt the music was “too soft” or “easy on the ears.” He is often quoted as complaining about the conservative musical establishment, “Can’t they take a dissonance like a man?”

Subtitled “The Camp Meeting”, the Third Symphony evokes the nostalgia and intensity of feeling Ives remembered of evangelical revival services during his childhood in Danbury, Connecticut. It was the religious fervor and the spirited hymn singing by untrained voices not the doctrinal ideals preached at these gatherings, that so deeply aroused him: Ives’ own spiritual outlook was deeply rooted in the New England tradition of Emerson and Thoreau. This work, one of the four numbered symphonies, is, as Ives described, “a kind of crossways between the older ways and the newer ways.” Here he retains largely traditional tonal and formal elements, such as extended “correct” fugal-type passages (in mvt. 1), and integral development and recapitulation of themes; what is most notably new appears in the third movement, where there are more dissonances in the counterpoint and the melodic writing is highly chromatic at many points. A standard feature of Ive’s later style also begins to emerge in this movement, that is, quotation of tune fragments in a stream-of-consciousness manner; note how small quotations of Silent Night suddenly appear, as motifs of peaceful contentment. In fact, much of the major thematic material for the Third Symphony derives from the hymn tunes Azmon, Erie, Cleansing Fountain, Happy Land, and Woodworth.

Ives: Symphony No. 3 "The Camp Meeting" & Symphony No. 4

2019

Ives: Symphony No. 3 "The Camp Meeting" & Symphony No. 4

Ives: Symphony No. 3, Orchestral Set No. 2

Ives: Symphony No. 3, Orchestral Set No. 2

Ives: Symphony No. 4

Ives: Symphony No. 4

Janáček: Glagolitic Mass, Sinfonietta

1992

Janáček: Glagolitic Mass, Sinfonietta

Keeping Score Audio Companion CD Collection

2007

Keeping Score Audio Companion CD Collection

Knussen: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3

Knussen: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3

Mackey: Tuck & Roll

2011

Mackey: Tuck & Roll

New World Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Steve Mackey, electric guitar

Repertoire
Steve Mackey: Tuck and Roll
Steve Mackey: Lost and Found
Steve Mackey: Eating Greens

Steven Mackey’s Tuck and Roll is a contemplative, colorful, often serene, and sometimes witty four-movement concerto for electric guitar and orchestra that belongs in a concert hall, not a stadium. The solo guitar — expressively played here by the composer — and orchestra bounce ideas around in a conversational manner, finding more than a few subjects of disagreement. Tuck and Roll may not be the piece to convince your teenager that classical music is cool, but it should persuade some diehards to take the electric guitar more seriously.

The following work, Lost and Found, is a brief orchestral showpiece that could easily serve as the soundtrack to a zany, imaginary cartoon. But the highlight of this disc is Eating Greens, a wide-ranging, seven-movement suite whose title was taken from a painting by Margaret Leonard. Mackey’s inspired wackiness is given free rein in “Waffling,” with its hilarious quotation of a well-known Christmas song. “Whim and Rigor (Homage to Henri Matisse)” is stark and strangely beautiful — a miniature masterpiece. And the concluding “Drunk Monk (Homage to Thelonious Monk),” with its lurching rhythms and winking discords, is one of the most original musical tributes this listener has encountered in many a year. Guided by their conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas, the young musicians of the New World Symphony play Mackey’s music with all the bold assurance and waggish imagination it deserves.

This music doesn't take itself too seriously, and yet it's anything but lightweight. Or, to turn that statement around, Mackey is a kidder with an apparent fondness for scandalizing subscription-holders, yet his music is finely crafted and touchingly sincere. Michael Tilson Thomas is hip enough to understand this, and the young adults of the New World Symphony (a training orchestra based in South Florida) relish Mackey's consistently fascinating weirdness. The production and engineering team of Jay David Saks and Tom Lazarus add to this disc's unqualified success.
Classical.net

Listen

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Apocalypse

1974

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Apocalypse

Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Rückert Lieder

Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Rückert Lieder

Mahler: Symphony No. 7

Mahler: Symphony No. 7

Mahler: Das klagende Lied

Mahler: Das klagende Lied

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

2008

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Mahler: Songs With Orchestra

2010

Mahler: Songs With Orchestra

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
Thomas Hampson, baritone

Repertoire
Gustav Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Gustav Mahler: Rückert-Lieder
Gustav Mahler: Selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson, two of today’s great Mahler singers, join Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in this final album of the award-winning MTT/SFS Mahler cycle. The selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn are the composer’s take on folk tunes, playful and touching. “The Songs of a Wayfarer” (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) tell of young love lost. And the Rückert settings are, in a word, gorgeous.

Tilson Thomas is completely at home in Mahler's oeuvre, so there really is no discernable difference in the way he handles the orchestra in the songs or the symphonies, and admirers of his work will be impressed with his control and clarity. Graham and Hampson are among the most accomplished singers going, and their warmth and melodic smoothness are wholly appropriate to the gentleness and longing of Mahler's songs.
AllMusic

"Graham was characteristically poised and radiant. The American mezzo-soprano lent her full, lustrous tone, regal bearing, and keen sensitivity to these uniquely beautiful songs, beginning here with 'Liebst du um Schönheit' (If you love because of beauty), conducted with great sensitivity by Tilson Thomas and limned by Graham’s lovely, rounded projection of the text."
San Francisco Classical Review

Hampson and the orchestra probed the music for all the pity and terror they conveyed…. Hampson's singing [of the last song] was as robust and mellifluous as ever, and he projected all the bite and tenderness of Mahler's melodies flawlessly.
San Francisco Chronicle

Listen

Mahler: Symphony No. 1

Mahler: Symphony No. 1

Mahler: Symphony No. 2

Mahler: Symphony No. 2

Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Kindertotenlieder

Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Kindertotenlieder

Mahler: Symphony No. 4

Mahler: Symphony No. 4

Mahler: Symphony No. 5

2006

Mahler: Symphony No. 5

Mahler: Symphony No. 6

Mahler: Symphony No. 6

Mahler: Symphony No. 7

Mahler: Symphony No. 7

Mahler: Symphony No. 8
Adagio from Symphony No. 10

2009

Mahler: Symphony No. 8
Adagio from Symphony No. 10

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Repertoire
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 8
Gustav Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No. 10

*GRAMMY Award winner for Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance, and Best Engineered Album-Classical

[This performance] has the right balance of line and harmony, the right feel for mass and momentum, the right sense of being in and of the moment, and above all, the sheer audacity to pull off the whole mighty and monumental work.
AllMusic

In the Seventh Symphony, Mahler was pursuing strategies of discontinuity – harmonically, polyphonically and schematically – notably in the last movement. So with this mastery of turning on a dime fully at his command, now he sets off to write this big new piece. The big problem with the whole piece is that the forces are so vast that it’s very easy for it all to become quite thick and quite fat. Considering the wonderful, mercurial wit and humour, this is the kind of piece that requires rapier thrusts, whereas the actual forces you have to work with are more like a blunt instrument.

The first movement is a big exposition, including perhaps the longest, most continuous burst of up-tempo music Mahler ever wrote. The imagery is of cloudscapes and bursts of light and little ensembles of heavenly hosts. There is one slower, more dirge-like contrast with sly, expressive violin solos but this burst of exultant energy is combined with contrapuntal mastery that makes it extraordinary to think Mahler once admitted he hardly ever turned up to his counterpoint classes and just squeaked by with passing grades. In this movement, the challenge is to get this wonderfully inspiring and entertaining music, so inherently full of surprise and brilliance, to sound with enough clarity and enough shape. You have to lighten things up and balance them very carefully. Otherwise you lose the wonderful way the vocal group is used to create very particular colours and the organist underscores certain, craggy themes. There is a quality of astonishment, too, as each key area is introduced – harking right back to those dramatic modulations in the First Symphony.

The piece proceeds through an astonishing coda, in which the tempo doubles. It’s important the first movement should end with that breathless feeling, because we are about to turn a corner into another language altogether, with a remarkably restrained and extremely mournful, simple little tune in the winds, which is duly transformed into the radiant, major-key power of the Chorus Mysticus at the end. The harmony here is pungent, with little shades of nuance the players must achieve without upsetting the overall mood of hushed sadness. Then there is a sudden outburst of sound, with the orchestra playing absolutely full out, especially the horns, the cellos and others in the middle range of the orchestra. The mood is reminiscent of the raw emotion in parts of the slow movements in the Fourth and Sixth symphonies and we are on the road to the ‘Abschied’ in Das Lied von der Erde.

Then we have all the high jinks. If you want to appreciate fully the wry genius of Mahler in approaching this text, you just have to compare this with Schumann’s reverential, lyrical setting of the same words. Mahler observes this with all the observational skill of a genre painter. Pater Ecstaticus is this great, enamoured, swashbuckling character, then Pater Profundus is the nearest thing Mahler ever wrote to a Wagner villain role, very much in the Alberich or Hagen mould. There’s great wildness in the music. Then we are into the first appearance of the angels and a kind of street music. These are not delicate little choristers he’s asking for here – these are really street kids, taunting us with edgy irreverence. The music in this section is full of humour. It’s like a game, full of frothy laughter and, after the angels and all the tremolos and trills and the sense of an electric, atmospheric event, comes Dr Marianus. This is a classic example of where many performances go off the rails, because it’s clear from Mahler’s markings that, whatever tempo you’re at as you come out of the angel ensemble, you must slow down gradually to the final hymn of Marianus (‘Jungfrau…’). That leads us beyond the realm of words and into the ‘Ewig Weibliche’ theme, with harmoniums and harps. It is the most daringly sentimental evocation of salon music he ever used.

Then we come to my favourite part of the piece – the ensemble with the great sinner ladies. Suddenly we are up a mountain, at a tea party with these three martyr ladies – these three old broads, who obviously get together regularly and reminisce about their wonderful old days of suffering. The twinkle in the music tells us their memories are predominantly happy – oh, remember those jackals? – and they sing a spectacular canon. It’s so charming and they are so enjoying one another’s company. Then comes Gretchen, bright and innocent, with another clear instruction to sing quietly and affectingly. This symphony mustn’t degenerate into a Schreifest. Ultimately the message of the piece is that the majesty of this simple girl’s love matches the entire majesty of Heaven.

Interview by Michael McManus (Gramophone, March 2010)

Mahler: Symphony No. 9

Mahler: Symphony No. 9

Mahler Project
Complete CD Box Set

Mahler Project
Complete CD Box Set

The Mahler Project Complete CD Box Set includes:

Exclusive bonus tracks featuring Susan Graham and Michael Tilson Thomas
Extensive booklet with notes in English, French and German

17-Disc Hybrid SACD set with over 18 hours of music including:
Symphonies Nos. 1-9
Adagio from Symphony No. 10
Kindertotenlieder
              Das klagende Lied
              Songs with Orchestra
              Das Lied von der Erde
Rückert-Lieder for Piano and Voice (bonus)

Introducing The Mahler Project Complete CD Box Set. For the first time ever, all twelve recordings from the esteemed SFS Media/Michael Tilson Thomas Mahler Project are available in a single Hybrid SACD Box Set. Newly packaged in a sleek, compact box, The Mahler Project Complete CD Box Set contains Hybrid SACDs of all of Mahler’s Symphonies and Songs as recorded by the San Francisco Symphony, with original liner notes compiled into one complete easy to navigate 324-page book.

As an added bonus, this set includes a never before released special bonus recording of the Rückert-Lieder for piano and voice with MTT on piano and Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano.

Michael Tilson Thomas is among today’s foremost interpreters of Mahler, and critic Mark Swed, writing in the Los Angeles Times, has called MTT and the San Francisco Symphony “the most exciting Mahler combination anywhere right now.”

This set’s recordings have been awarded a combined 7 Grammy® Awards.

The recording of the early oratio Das klagende Lied that Michael Tilson Thomas and the orchestra made in 1997 for RCA Victor has been remastered and reissued, and it sounds even more vibrant and dramatically charged than it did a decade ago. The orchestral effects that the 20-year-old composer would later use to more persuasive use--all those marches and trumpet fanfares--come through beautifully.
San Francisco Chronicle

The Mahler Recording Project Details:

Mahler: Symphony No. 1

The SFS and MTT present Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, their second recording of the complete Mahler Symphony cycle. This powerful and passionate performance of Mahler’s “Titan” follows the universally acclaimed recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, which topped the Billboard classical chart within the first week of its release. Recorded during the SFS concerts of September 19-23, 2001, this newest addition to the Mahler cycle captures the live-performance excitement of the Grammy-winning conductor-symphony partnership that the Los Angeles Times has declared “the most exciting Mahler combination anywhere right now.”

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (2-Disc)

The massive Second Symphony takes us into epic territory. Often called the Resurrection Symphony, this vast work begins in purgatorial terror and moves through the gamut of emotions, to a visionary choral finale in which the heavens open. In addition to the Orchestra, the SFS recording of this overwhelming work features the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, and mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 and Kindertotenlieder (2-Disc)

The SFS and MTT present Mahler Symphony No. 3 and Kindertotenlieder, the third installment of the SFS/MTT Mahler cycle. The Mahler Third, is the most expansive of the composer’s symphonies. There are moments of angst here, but the overwhelming message is of love’s redeeming power, and the peaks this great work scales are some of the most glorious in all music. The Mahler Third features mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, Women of the SFS Chorus, the Pacific Boychoir and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Also included in this two-disc set is a recording of Mahler’s heartbreaking Kindertotenlieder, with Michelle DeYoung.

Mahler: Symphony No. 4

The SFS and MTT present Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall in the concerts of September 24-28, 2003. Mahler’s Fourth is the most tuneful and upbeat of his symphonies. Its gloriously expansive slow movement offers a picture of heavenly terrain and its vocal finale, with soprano Laura Claycomb, is as freshly innocent as a folk tune.

Mahler: Symphony No. 5

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is all about action. It’s his breakthrough work–a “foaming, roaring, raging sea of sound,” he called it, a work of “dancing stars.” The famed Adagietto was inspired by Mahler’s love for his young wife Alma. Hear Mahler 5 recorded live by the SFS and MTT, the partnership that the Los Angeles Times calls “the most exciting Mahler combination anywhere right now.”

Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (2-Disc)

The SFS and MTT present their first recording of the complete Mahler Symphony cycle. Each of Mahler’s nine symphonies is a drama, and Michael Tilson Thomas is among the foremost interpreters of these episodes. Last fall, the SFS and MTT began their five-season project of recording all the Mahler Symphonies and the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth, live. The first installment is Symphony No. 6. Sometimes called the “Tragic” Symphony, the Sixth shows Mahler at his most devastating, and many think of this music, first heard in 1906, as a prophecy of the horrors of the century to come. This recording was made at the SFS concerts of September 12-15, 2001, immediately following the events of September 11 and captures a passionate response to that day.

Mahler: Symphony No. 7

2007 Grammy Award Winner for Best Classical Album and Best Orchestral Performance!

The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and its Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas’ (MTT) live concert recording of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 has won two Grammy® Awards in the categories of Best Classical Album and Best Orchestral Performance. Recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall, the Seventh is Mahler at his most mysterious. Sometimes called “Song of the Night,” the work has a tantalizing nocturnal quality, evident in two “Nachtmusik” movements and the sonic cascades of the opening, inspired by an evening boat ride on an alpine lake. This is Mahler’s ultimate challenge to performers and a fascinating journey for listeners.

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 and the Adagio from Symphony No. 10 (2-Disc)

Winner of three Grammys! Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance, and Best Engineered Classical Album!

Mahler’s immense creation—featuring hundreds of musicians, three choruses, and soloists—is a symphony so epic in scope that it has been dubbed the “Symphony of A Thousand.” Mahler’s Eighth—a tale of damnation and salvation—is quintessentially a romantic work, but it owes a great debt to the towering Baroque choral works of J.S. Bach.

Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (2-Disc)

Recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall during the concerts on September 28 – October 4, 2004, Mahler’s last completed symphony covers territory from the amiable Austrian pastoral to the fury of its “Burleske” to the uninhibited baring, in the finale, of the unprotected heart. Michael Tilson Thomas has distinguished himself as one of the world’s foremost Mahler interpreters, and through his signature performances, as one of the composer’s most compelling advocates. In 1974, at the age of 29, he made his SFS debut conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. Now celebrating his tenth season as Music Director, he and the SFS have formed an orchestral partnership acclaimed for innovation, artistic excellence, and a revitalization of the classical musical experience.

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Mahler was a great symphonist and a great songwriter. In his “song-symphony” Das Lied von der Erde (“The Song of the Earth”), these two strands of his genius are intertwined. Here Mahler summons all his orchestral and vocal imagination, taking us to the heart of ancient Chinese poems that praise life’s joys and lament life’s brevity. Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the San Francisco Symphony, with tenor Stuart Skelton and world-renowned baritone Thomas Hampson.

Mahler: Songs With Orchestra

Here is Mahler the enchanter. The selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn are the composer’s take on folk tunes, playful and touching. The Songs of a Wayfarer (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) tell of young love lost. And the Rückert settings are, in a word, gorgeous. Hear Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson, two of today’s great Mahler singers, as they join Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in this final album of the award-winning MTT/SFS Mahler cycle.

Mahler: The Ultimate Collection (on vinyl)

2010

Mahler: The Ultimate Collection (on vinyl)

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Pacific Boychoir, San Francisco Girls Chorus
Soloists: Isabel Bayrakdarian, Laura Claycomb, Michelle DeYoung, Susan Graham, Anthony Dean Griffey, Thomas Hampson, Elza van den Heever, Katarina Karnéus, Quinn Kelsey, Sergei Leiferkus, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, James Morris, Thomas Moser, Yvonne Naef, Marina Shaguch, Stuart Skelton, Erin Wall

Repertoire
Gustav Mahler
• Symphonies Nos. 1-9
• Adagio from Symphony No. 10
• Kindertotenlieder
• Das klagende Lied
• Das Lied von der Erde
• Songs with Orchestra
• Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
• Rückert-Lieder
• Selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
• Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
• Rückert-Lieder for piano and voice
• Des Knaben Wunderhorn

A LIMITED EDITION of the Grammy® Award–winning series.

A SPECIALLY DESIGNED AND NUMBERED DELUXE BOXED SET

The deluxe 22-LP set is the capstone of the seven-time Grammy® Award-winning and five star Diâpason d’Or Mahler Cycle recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall from 2001-2009. The series, released in individual installments on Hybrid SACD, was a commercial success and was lauded with critical acclaim. This one-time only offer will be limited to 500 individually numbered sets. The first 250 sets will be signed by Michael Tilson Thomas.

Features
• Numbered, limited to 1000 sets
• First 250 sets signed by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas
• 22 180g vinyl LPs, each housed in luxuriously designed, separate jackets
• LP mastering by Kevin Gray at Acous Tech Mastering
• Hardbound book with extensive liner notes, bios, and texts in three languages, plus archival photographs
• Special outer shipping box or extra protection
• Over 18 hours of music

The discs, originally recorded in DSD and released on hybrid-stereo and (tasteful, even convincing) multichannel SACDs, were generally excellent sounding, with a rich tonality, wide and deep soundstaging, and terrific dynamic scaling and extended range. Not only have these qualities translated beautifully to vinyl, they actually, perhaps even surprisingly, sound better than ever.
The Absolute Sound

“This has been a landmark Mahler cycle… there’s now no better orchestra in the U.S. than Tilson Thomas’s SFS for Mahler. If you’ve not yet sampled the cycle… just pick your favorite Mahler to start. But do start.”
Fanfare

Matthews: Quatrain, Memorial, Hidden Variables, Machines & Dreams

Matthews: Quatrain, Memorial, Hidden Variables, Machines & Dreams

McLaughlin: Mediterranean Concerto

McLaughlin: Mediterranean Concerto

Mendelssohn & Saint-Saëns: Violin Concertos

Mendelssohn & Saint-Saëns: Violin Concertos

Metallica: S&M2

Metallica: S&M2

Michael Tilson Thomas — Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings

Michael Tilson Thomas — Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings

ARTISTS
Michael Tilson Thomas, Jean-Marc Luisada, Paul Zukofsky, Mischa Maisky, Frederica von Stade, Tyne Daly, Marie Mclaughlin, Thomas Hampson, John Harle, New World Brass, Ertan Torgul, Gregory Miller, Tisha Murvihill, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, London Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony

CD 1
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 1
Boston Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 2
GRIEG · SCHUMANN Piano Concertos
Jean-Marc Luisada; London Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 3
DEBUSSY Images; Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Boston Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 4
DEBUSSY Violin Sonata; Cello Sonata; Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp; Syrinx
Boston Symphony Chamber Players; Michael Tilson Thomas, piano

CD 5
IVES Three Places in New England
RUGGLES Sun-treader
Boston Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 6
STRAVINSKY Le Roi des étoiles; Le Sacre du printemps
Boston Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 7
PISTON Symphony No. 2
WILLIAM SCHUMAN Violin Concerto
Paul Zukofsky, violin; Boston Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 8
SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Mischa Maisky, cello; London Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 9
BERNSTEIN On the Town
Frederica von Stade; Tyne Daly; Marie Mclaughlin; Thomas Hampson & supporting cast
London Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 10
BERNSTEIN Arias and Barcarolles; A Quiet Place; Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Frederica von Stade; Thomas Hampson
London Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 11
ELVIS COSTELLO Il sogno
London Symphony Orchestra / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 12
TANGAZO – MUSIC OF LATIN AMERICA
Chávez; Copland; Roldán; Revueltas; Caturla; Piazzolla; Ginastera
New World Symphony / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 13
INGOLF DAHL Concerto for Alto Saxophone; Hymn; Music for Brass Instruments; The Tower of Saint Barbara
John Harle; New World Brass; Ertan Torgul; Gregory Miller; Tisha Murvihill
New World Symphony / Michael Tilson Thomas

CD 14
MORTON FELDMAN Piano and Orchestra; Cello and Orchestra; Coptic Light
Alan Feinberg; Robert Cohen
New World Symphony / Michael Tilson Thomas

This 14-disc box set from DG Eloquence comprises recordings spanning from 1970 to 2003, featuring Tilson Thomas as both conductor and pianist. MTT recorded his first albums for Deutsche Grammophon at the start of his tenure as Assistant Conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the offerings include Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1, Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, and works by American composers Charles Ives, Walter Piston, Carl Ruggles, and William Schuman. This period also showcases MTT as a pianist, joining members of the BSO in chamber works by Debussy.

When he became Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1995, MTT rekindled his Deutsche Grammophon relationship with two albums of music by Leonard Bernstein; those recordings feature vocal soloists Frederica von Stade and Thomas Hampson, both longtime friends and collaborators of MTT. This period also resulted in albums of Shostakovich Cello Concertos with Mischa Maisky and Elvis Costello’s Il sogno, a ballet score for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The set’s final three discs are devoted to MTT’s Argo recordings with the New World Symphony, which he co-founded in 1987 as a training orchestra but which rapidly established itself as a top-caliber ensemble in its own right. The repertoire on these recordings includes Latin American dances, a survey of works by Morton Feldman, and a tribute to MTT’s college composition teacher Ingolf Dahl.

The collection includes all original jackets with archival photography, new remasterings, and authoritative notes by music journalist Peter Quantrill. Taken as a whole, the box set demonstrates Michael Tilson Thomas’s affinity for a wide range of repertoire, his ear for complex rhythms and textures, and his skills as an orchestra builder.

Thomas once again shows why he’s the fastest rising star on the classical conducting scene. He is forceful without unnecessary sternness, tender while never losing control, and knowledgeable without imposing. The Boston Symphony plays with certainty and taste.
Billboard, 1971

Tilson Thomas gives us one of the most perceptive and volatile readings I have ever heard.
Stereo Review, 1972

The finest available studio recording of the Second Concerto … Few have tended the Largo’s opening bars as lovingly as Mischa Maisky … Tilson Thomas points and articulates with his usual skill.
Gramophone, 1995

Mozart: Concerto for Flute & Harp, Sonatas for Flute & Piano

Mozart: Concerto for Flute & Harp, Sonatas for Flute & Piano

Muldowney: Oboe Concerto

Muldowney: Oboe Concerto

New World Jazz

New World Jazz

New World Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Repertoire
John Adams: Lollapalooza
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Leonard Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
Darius Milhaud: La Création du Monde
Igor Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto
Paul Hindemith: Ragtime
George Antheil: A Jazz Symphony
David Raskin: The Bad and the Beautiful (Theme)

Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas founded the New World Symphony in 1987 as a training orchestra for young musicians–beyond college orchestras, there is little else to prepare players for the rigor and routine of orchestral careers. The program, which offers three-year fellowships, has had great success and produced both players for the top orchestras in the U.S. and recordings of a level to rival those orchestras. The primary difference between their recordings and those of “major” orchestras is the repertoire: NWS’s previous recordings have focused on Heitor Villa-Lobos, Paul Schoenfield and Ingolf Dahl.

New World Jazz presents jazzy and jazz-influenced works by eight European and American composers. Some, like George Gershwin, are known for their “popular” works; others, like Leonard Bernstein and John Adams, are well-known for fusing elements of American vernacular styles and harmonies into their “classical” works. Beyond Rhapsody in Blue the works are a bit off the beaten path, and the program is entirely rewarding. To close the disc, MTT stepped further off the path to Hollywood for David Raksin’s theme from “The Bad and the Beautiful,” and his young players pour themselves into this lush example of 1950s film music.

One of the activities for which Michael Tilson Thomas has an especially strong passion is cultivating the traditions of great ensemble playing within the next generation of young musicians. In his work with the New World Symphony--a training orchestra for gifted conservatory graduates from around the world, which he founded in 1987--MTT has clearly inherited the mantle of inspiring educator from Leonard Bernstein. He similarly works along the popular-classical divide so prevalent in American culture--not as a dead end but a source of creative energy. This disc showcases the vitality of orchestral jazz in various guises as it straddles that divide, from the music of American composers and European émigrés to Hollywood film scores. One of the things MTT demonstrates with the selections here--eminently incarnated by the ensemble, which has a huge sense of fun with it--is the amazing malleability and assimilibility of jazz elements, whether it's the spiky rhythmic fragments that get blown to oversize in John Adams's Lollapalooza or the brashly outrageous brass yawpings of Bernstein's Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs (demonstrating the composer's own belief in a shared sensibility linking baroque improvisatory counterpoint with jazz). One of the real treats here is the account of Rhapsody in Blue in its first, seldom-heard version (as orchestrated by Ferde Grofé for a '20s jazz band). This is one of the freshest, most absorbingly joyful versions of the Gershwin available, full of colors you will have likely never encountered, with an exuberantly inventive MTT at the keyboard. The stardust saxophone sound in Rhapsody's slow dance tune alone is worth the price of admission.
Thomas May

Orff: Carmina Burana

Orff: Carmina Burana

Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet

Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet

Prokofiev: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5, Lt. Kije Suite, Suite from the Love for Three Oranges, Music from Cinderella

1997

Prokofiev: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5, Lt. Kije Suite, Suite from the Love for Three Oranges, Music from Cinderella

Puccini: Tosca

Puccini: Tosca

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2

Ravel: Boléro

Ravel: Boléro

Reich: The Desert Music

Reich: The Desert Music

Reich: The Four Sections, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices & Organ

Reich: The Four Sections, Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices & Organ

Reich: Tehillim, Three Movements

1994

Reich: Tehillim, Three Movements

Respighi: Fountains of Rome, Feste Romane

1980

Respighi: Fountains of Rome, Feste Romane

Ruggles: The Complete Music

Ruggles: The Complete Music

Ruggles: Sun-Treader, Schuman: Violin Concerto, Piston: Symphony No. 2

Ruggles: Sun-Treader, Schuman: Violin Concerto, Piston: Symphony No. 2

Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1

Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1

Schumann & Grieg: Piano Concertos

Schumann & Grieg: Piano Concertos

Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1–4

2017

Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1–4

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5

2009

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5

Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Chausson: Poème for Violin & Orchestra

Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Chausson: Poème for Violin & Orchestra

Silverman/Foreman: Elephant Steps

1974

Silverman/Foreman: Elephant Steps

Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan

Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Till Eulenspiegel

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Till Eulenspiegel

London Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Repertoire
Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel

If this is what the LSO/Tilson Thomas partnership is to be like, then long may it thrive. This is the most emotionally sumptuous Heldenleben I have encountered since Barbirolli's with the same orchestra 20 years ago. For comprehensive Straussian interpretation, Karajan's DG has remained supreme, while Jarvi concentrated on the work's structural splendour, though in rather too resonant a hall (Chandos). But I find this performance as moving, thrilling and satisfying as any in the catalogue and I include Karajan's. The recording itself, made at a perfect level with no evidence of knob-twiddling, is of demonstration quality, with a huge but not exaggerated dynamic range—the off-stage trumpets are just right, there is a beautifully hushed pianissimo for the strings' great tune in the coda, and the battle scene is the best and clearest I know (all credit to the conductor, who appreciates its musical qualities). It is orchestral playing and conducting of Strauss of the very highest order. Even when Tilson Thomas risks slow tempos, there is no loss of momentum, for he has the whole span within his grasp from the very start. What a fiery first section, and how clear all the strands are in the Works of Peace. There is immense tenderness (the end of the love scene, for example) and real nobility. Alexander Barantschik's violin solo is the equal of Joseph Silverstein's in a classic Boston performance of the past, and the LSO's principal horn plays marvellously. Tilson Thomas makes a speciality of the pauses in which the score abounds, and how effective they are when observed correctly. The woodwind playing in the Adversaries section, too, is brilliant and accurate—and the engineers allow us to hear every detail of the scoring in perspective. As for the strings … glorious. Those who find this work repellent will detest this recording, the rest of us will, I believe, rejoice in it, especially as the disc is completed by a witty and sparkling account of Till Eulenspiegel.'"
Gramophone

Strauss: 4 Last Songs, Brentano-Lieder, Orchestra Lieder

1994

Strauss: 4 Last Songs, Brentano-Lieder, Orchestra Lieder

Stravinsky/Cage/Reich - Angel Artistry

Stravinsky/Cage/Reich - Angel Artistry

Stravinsky: Firebird, Rite Of Spring, Perséphone

Stravinsky: Firebird, Rite Of Spring, Perséphone

San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Repertoire
Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Igor Stravinsky: Perséphone

This CD includes The Firebird, a ballet based on Russian fairy tales of the magical glowing bird that can be both a blessing and a curse to its owner, The Rite of Spring, a ballet and orchestral concert work and Perséphone, a musical work for speaker, solo singers, chorus, dancers and orchestra.

*GRAMMY® Award winner for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Classical Album

Here's a Stravinsky set to raise eyebrows. Where is Petrouchka, the standard coupling for Firebird and Rite in collections of the great early Stravinsky ballet scores? Instead, we get the too rarely heard Perséphone, and it's the highlight of the set. Premiered in 1934 to a text by André Gide, Perséphone is a retelling of the Greek fertility myth of the earth's winter death and spring renewal. The tale drew from Stravinsky some of his most delicate and beautiful music in the neoclassical style of the period, a sibling to the ballets Apollo and Orpheus and the cantata Oedipus Rex (it also includes string figures that recall those works). Stephanie Cosserat, in the title role, is a youthfully persuasive narrator, very different from Vera Zorina's oracular reciter on Stravinsky's own recording. Stuart Neill's tenor is a big plus, and the orchestra and chorus play and sing with involvement. Michael Tilson Thomas brings out the cool tenderness of the score, and the recording, made at a live performance, is truthful. His Firebird is lushly dramatic, and the Rite's barbaric thrust is leavened by some soulful wind playing. Recorded competition in the two ballets is fierce (along with Gergiev's recent Firebird on Philips, there are classic versions by Ansermet, Dorati, Haitink, and others, including the composer) but Perséphone makes this set an attractive proposition.
Dan Davis

Stravinsky in America

1997

Stravinsky in America

Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps, King Of The Stars

1972

Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps, King Of The Stars

Stravinsky: Petrouchka, Scherzo à la Russe

1982

Stravinsky: Petrouchka, Scherzo à la Russe

Stravinsky: Rite of Spring, Fireworks, Petrouchka

Stravinsky: Rite of Spring, Fireworks, Petrouchka

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms, Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements

1994

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms, Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements

Subotnick: Parallel Lines; Grantham: Seven Choral Settings of Poems by Emily Dickinson

1982

Subotnick: Parallel Lines; Grantham: Seven Choral Settings of Poems by Emily Dickinson

Tangazo: Music of Latin America

Tangazo: Music of Latin America

Tavener: The Repentant Thief

Tavener: The Repentant Thief

London Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Andrew Marriner, clarinet

Repertoire
John Tavener: The Repentant Thief

John Tavener doesn’t see himself as an historicist so much as in pursuit of the ‘one simple memory’ from which all art derives – looking back to a supposed pre-secular existence when art, life and spirit were more closely integrated than they might seem now.

Out of that pursuit comes The Repentant Thief, completed in May 1990 as (the composer’s words) ‘a shorter, simple and rather primitive piece’ after the exertion of two large scale works: a dramatic oratorio Resurrection and an opera (his second) Mary of Egypt. The thief of the title is one of the criminals crucified with Jesus on Golgotha who, according to the gospel of St Luke asks: ‘Remember me when you come into your kingdom’, and is told ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise’.

Tavener’s piece is a response to the idea of that progress to Paradise, with the thief understood as a sort of holy fool – what Russian Orthodoxy calls a ‘Yurodivy’ – dancing blindly towards salvation. The orchestration is for a small group of strings, divided into up to fourteen parts, with percussion (including a prominent role for handbells) and a solo clarinet which, as Tavener puts it, ‘leads the Dance and the Lament, apparently going nowhere: the human paradox as I perceive it musically, leading to the End Point’.

In purely musical terms it describes something like a rondo structure, built around a rising triadic motif, sometimes minor sometimes major, heard at the outset on the clarinet (and doubled by a solo cello, using longer note values) that recurs at intervals throughout the piece. Between the triad statements come rhythmically irregular dance sections for the whole ensemble -which is nonetheless cast in terms of such chamber intimacy that the composer recommends it to play not with a conventional conductor but with a ‘director’ who sits on the same level as the players, with the clarinet and handbells to his right and left.

The chamber scale of statement is one reason why it doesn’t quite amount to a concerto; and another is the treatment of the clarinet which, like the solo cello in an earlier quasi-concerto work The Protecting Veil, is more integrated into the ensemble than set up in conflict with it. But, again like The Protecting Veil there is no doubting where the focus of musical interest lies, and Tavener is clear about the kind of personality he wants the clarinet to project. He wants the peasant-rustic sound of Greek folk woodwind, and goes so far as to suggest using it- ‘if available’ – in future performances for some of the dance sections, alternating with a standard B flat concert instrument.

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony

1978

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker

1978

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1, Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2

1986

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1, Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2

Tchaikovsky: Suite No. 3

1978

Tchaikovsky: Suite No. 3

Tchaikovsky: Suites Nos. 2 & 4, Sérénade Mélancolique

Tchaikovsky: Suites Nos. 2 & 4, Sérénade Mélancolique

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, Debussy: Images

2000

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, Debussy: Images

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Romeo & Juliet Fantasy-Overture

2015

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, Romeo & Juliet Fantasy-Overture

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6, "Pathétique"

2018

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6, "Pathétique"

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins, Little Threepenny Music

Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins, Little Threepenny Music

Tilson Thomas: From the Diary of Anne Frank & Meditations On Rilke

2020

Tilson Thomas: From the Diary of Anne Frank & Meditations On Rilke

TIlson Thomas: GRACE

Learn more about the project

TIlson Thomas: GRACE

Created to celebrate MTT’s 80th birthday, GRACE honors his lifetime of contributions as a composer. This four-disc set spans more than five decades of his compositional career and features 18 works, from premiere recordings to remastered archival recordings available for the first time.

The collection also includes an extensive booklet containing composer’s notes, original essays, and a timeline of archival photos chronicling MTT’s life as a pianist, conductor, composer, recording artist, and teacher.

For listeners whose musical lives have been inexorably shaped by MTT the conductor (and I count myself as one of those), perhaps it's high time we should be giving MTT the composer the respect and consideration that he deserves.
Gramophone

BOX SET CONTAINS:
4 CDs (featuring 18 works)
Both premiere recordings and remastered archival recordings available for the first time
Extensive booklet including composer’s notes, original essays, timeline of archival photos chronicling MTT’s life as a pianist, conductor, composer, recording artist, and teacher

All net proceeds from GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas will be donated to brain cancer research at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center.

There are two key times in an artist’s life. The first is inventing yourself. The second, the harder part, is going the distance. How do you sustain the vision, make it grow, and share it? To be an artist means to have the courage for rebirth and growth. It’s never-ending."
Michael Tilson Thomas

Tilson Thomas: Island Music
American Gifts for Marimba Duo

2020

Tilson Thomas: Island Music
American Gifts for Marimba Duo

Tilson Thomas: Poems of Emily Dickinson
A Certain Slant of Light

2017

Tilson Thomas: Poems of Emily Dickinson
A Certain Slant of Light

Tilson Thomas: Upon Further Reflection
John Wilson, piano

2023

Tilson Thomas: Upon Further Reflection
John Wilson, piano

Tilson Thomas: You Come Here Often?
Yuja Wang: The American Project