I was profoundly saddened to learn about the death, yesterday, of Michael Tilson Thomas. Just because something is inevitable and imminent doesn’t make it less of a shock when it comes.
I sang under Maestro MTT’s baton twice in my career, both times at Tanglewood: once in the summer of 2010 for performances of the Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms and the Mozart Requiem, and once recently, in 2022, for the season-ending Beethoven 9 performance (preceded by a nervy chorus-only performance of Charles Ives’ “Psalm 90” under the baton of James Burton).
I feel privileged to have had these experiences, particularly the 2022 one, coming only a short time after his diagnosis of terminal cancer. To see him continuing not only to battle on but to make music the way it should be performed—that is to say, vitally, humorously, and above all humanely—was tremendously moving.
Also: no one prepared me for how garrulous, funny, and generally chatty he was as a a conductor. He told us stories about growing up with his vaudeville grandparents, the Thomaschevskys; he also told us about how he thought about Beethoven and the monumental 9th symphony. He showed us, rather than told us, how to be human and to face down the ultimately inevitability with grace.
New York Times: Michael Tilson Thomas, Celebrated American Conductor, Dies at 81.
NPR: Michael Tilson Thomas, renowned conductor and composer, dies at 81.
San Francisco Standard: SF Symphony legend Michael Tilson Thomas dies: ‘Like some great library being burned.’
Gramophone: A tribute to Michael Tilson Thomas, who has died at the age of 81.
Boston Symphony issued a statement on Instagram.