Work: Dubinushka (The little oak stick), Op.62

Aaron Copland was friend and mentor to the young Tilson Thomas and his Third Symphony receives an affectionate performance as the conductor returns to his roots. 

Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in a programme of Russian music with star soloist Evgeny Kissin, whose Tchaikovsky concerto partially fulfilled expectations, but not more.

In a radio speech given by Sir Thomas Beecham to celebrate Jean Sibelius’ 90th birthday in 1955, the conductor praised the Finnish composer’s tenacity in pursuing his personal musical vision – even if that meant, as Beecham sardonically noted, that the music would go “rather over the head of [...] the public and [...] musical press”.