Fifty years ago, Michael Tilson Thomas made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. This week, he bade the orchestra farewell with a performance of the same composer’s Fifth. Understandably, emotions ran high in Davies Symphony Hall as he started his valedictory run on Thursday.
In the space between his debut and this departure, Tilson Thomas led the SFS for 25 years, from 1995 to 2020, becoming a beloved cultural figure in the city. Although diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2021, he has continued to conduct as much as his treatment will allow. But last month, he withdrew from several weeks of planned concerts here, announcing that the Mahler Fifth would be his final subscription appearance. Although bittersweet, it felt like an appropriate bookend to a life’s work.
Tilson Thomas received an immediate standing ovation from the audience and the musicians when he reached the stage. He looked heartened by the appreciation, but he quickly gave the impression that he wanted to get to work. And from the first trumpet call to the final rondo, it was clear that this was a vivid, living interpretation – influenced, of course, by Tilson Thomas’ six decades of intimate familiarity with the music, but still with new ideas to explore. (Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra was dropped from the bill to allow for maximum concentration on the Mahler.)
Associate Principal Trumpet Aaron Schuman played the opening solo with a decidedly regal attitude. He was welcoming a king to the stage. That warm, celebratory tone contrasted nicely with the Trauermarsch, where Tilson Thomas deployed rubato liberally and encouraged heavy vibrato in the string tone. This created the sense of an urgent and deeply felt send-off, appropriate to the occasion. Yet he didn’t luxuriate in this mindset all night long; the Stürmisch bewegt emerged with a raucous intensity, almost perverting the themes from the first movement that reappear within it. The brass players brought their full force to the lively chorale.
The Scherzo was a touch mannered for my taste, although I appreciated the elegance of Guest Principal Michael Stevens’ horn solos. It wasn’t until Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik and Principal Cello Rainer Eudeikis began their extended pizzicato section that the movement truly caught fire. From there, Tilson Thomas allowed the orchestra to gain in power to a crashing conclusion, one that would make the familiar Adagietto feel like a glass of water on a hot summer day.
And what an Adagietto it was! Tilson Thomas encouraged the strings to draw out phrases, and they happily complied, as if not wanting the moment to end. Katherine Siochi’s harp studded the movement like teardrops. It was an interpretation that walked right up to the line of lachrymosity, but which reined in the melodramatic excess whenever it threatened to turn into schmaltz.
After moving between so many moods throughout the symphony, the Rondo-Finale was pure fun. Tilson Thomas could barely hold the silence before the audience broke out into sustained applause. It was an earned moment of appreciation for a master who still has so much to offer, as well as a collective thank-you for decades of friendship and music making.
As I watched the crowd give Tilson Thomas his proverbial flowers, the German word “ewig” crept into my head. It is, of course, the final word of Mahler’s Abschied, one of classical music’s greatest long goodbyes, which ends on a word that translates to eternal, forever, immortal. All words that will apply perpetually to MTT long after these farewell performances have passed.
