All language subtitles for PBS American Masters – Michael Tilson Thomas- Where Now Is 3

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[ Indistinct conversation

[ Orchestra tuning ]

[ Applause ]

[ Orchestra playing ]

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Thomas: What a conductor
is doing is getting

100 or so people to agree where
"now" really is.

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The kind of pulse,
the kind of underlying breath

that animates the music.

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The conductor has had
the luxury

of seeing
the whole design in the score.

So he is in a position
to perceive the total design

of what is happening
in the performance.

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[ Orchestra fades,
vehicles honking ]

[ Musicians rehearsing ]

[ Musicians tuning ]

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Man: The funny thing
is about conducting,

there's not that much
that you have to do in terms

of what you have to do
with your hands.

There have to learn to beat --

much, much more difficult
is learning

how to learn the music
in the first place,

learning how to sit down
with a piece of music

that's written out
for orchestra,

and learn it, learn the notes,

and learn the way
they're distributed

amongst the instruments
and the way it should sound.

Then the process begins,
which, unfortunately,

no way has been developed
yet of avoiding,

and that is sitting down
at the piano

and pounding out
every note in the piece.

And you go through it
again and again,

and you begin to think, now,
how does this piece really go?

What do I have to do
to make it work,

to make it clear?

[ Playing piano ]

Ay!

I knew that the biggest treasure

was the dream
that the music contained.

To be able to see
it and understand it

and then be able to share it,
to transmit it,

to wrestle it down
from the dream world

into the real world,

but still have it feel like
a dream.

[ Playing notes ]

And I think
that's the answer now.

Okay, fortissimo,
but light, right?

It has to sound really joyous,
like laughter --

[ Imitates laughter ]

[ Humming ]

Stir it up.

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Good, I'll tell you what,

when the harmonies
get the most complicated,

let's everyone understand
that together,

maybe it's not possible to
necessarily play so much louder,

but in the way you show it
to the audience --

[ Humming ]

Wow!

They should know that you feel
that so they can feel it, too.

Then --
[ Humming ]

Violas and cellos take the lead
like crazy before E.

One, and...

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Good, good, good, good, good.

That's so charming, what you --
that line --

[ Humming ]

That's the kind of stuff
that we have to, like,

make it a life mission
to get out to the public.

You know, it's wonderful, right?

Akhmedyarova: All of us who go
to New World Symphony

meet Michael at our -- kind of
a crucial period in our lives.

It's when you graduate
from school

and not yet having a real job.

The crossroads where,
which path you take,

and here comes in Michael,
in your life.

Thomas: Just float up there.

[ Humming ]

Good! Begging.

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Conferences, conferences,

43 new people -- so,
I've learned all these names,

that's why I have
that poster over there.

So as I walk by,
I can test my knowledge.

Kyla, that's right --
Kyla, Kyla, Kyla.

This guy is very talented --
Nicholas.

Aaron -- I just remember, there
was somebody here last year

called Aaron also.

This is Jiali --
she just got a job as principal

in the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

A lot of new people.

The New World Symphony
is a place for people

to figure out what their purpose
in life really is.

Of course, they know
they want to be musicians,

but in what kind of way
do they want to be musicians?

Smith: The idea of creating
the New World Symphony

was to create a training academy

to give
great opportunities,

artistic opportunities,
to the most talented musicians

graduating from
the conservatories

across the country.

But it was also a bigger goal

to really kind of transform
our musical culture.

Izotov: You know, you'll be hard
pressed to find

a lot of great orchestras
these days

that do not have graduates
from New World Symphony.

And New World
is such a place where

you know
you're starting to be good,

you come from a lot of training,
good schools and all that,

but then you're absolutely --
not just green,

I mean, you're neon green.

You have no idea
what you're doing.

And you're terrified because,

in spite of how good you are,

you know that there's just
so much talent in this business

and you see all these
talented people around you,

your friends and colleagues.

Thomas:
Because it's so important

that they be with people

who are colleagues
that will inspire them,

that will get them...

level --
to continue to grow.

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Okay.

Come on, pups.

At this time in my life,
I'm making a transition

from being
so constantly on stage

as a conductor,

to being more of a composer,

and somehow a way of doing
that seemed to me to go back

to these very early pieces
and write them out

and see what I would learn,

and also to reconnect,

if I could,
with who I was way back then.

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An only child -- this kid
in my parent's living room,

in the darkness with
the shimmering bands of light

from the Venetian blinds
streaming through.

But, of course,
the piano -- improvising.

And I relished the time

that I had sometimes to be
on my own with the piano

because that was
the opportunity for me

to sort of use improvisation
as a way of finding myself.

And this piano piece

came out of
those improvisations.

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"Sunset Soliloquy," also called
"Whitsett Avenue" --

Whitsett Avenue was the address
of my parents' house,

the house where I was born
and grew up.

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It was in
the San Fernando Valley,

and initially it was country.

There was our house, then there
was a persimmon orchard.

And there were dirt roads.

It was the San Fernando Valley

in its most
paradise-like period.

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Sounds beautiful, John!
Beautiful, beautiful.

I have, like, three and a half
thoughts for you.

At the very first one --

show me --
show me the first one.

-Wilson: Of the right hand?
-Thomas: Of the right hand.

[ Playing ]

Yeah, it's better to be
a tiny bit slower and more --

[ Humming ]

Wilson: I see -- intense.

Thomas: Yeah.

[ Playing ]

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A little bit like that.
[ Humming ]

Yeah, just let you enjoy,
you know, it's kind of like a --

You know, that --
[ Humming ]

Yeah, a little bit stretchy.

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You play this in a way
that I kind of

dreamt that I might ever
be able to play it.

It's just so wonderful.

[ Playing piano ]

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My greatest teacher
and inspiration was my father.

My father was
a visionary person.

He was an amazing musician --

played by ear,
improvised hours a day,

the most original,
extraordinary music.

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He was a bohemian kind of guy.

He was wandering around
the desert

and he was writing poetry
and painting pictures

and occasionally finishing
a screenplay.

My mother was the, kind of,

breadwinner, the teacher,
the homemaker,

and there they were, very much
in love with each other

and very much
appreciating one another.

He had the sense of
the wondrous-ness of things,

of music and everything else,

even though his life was filled
with pain and conflict,

but he is the one who really
taught me to experience

the wonder in the music,
and to whatever else happened.,

hold onto it.

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From the time I was a teenager
going to music camp,

it was noticed by the counselors

that I really liked
dissonant music --

[ Playing discordant notes ]
And -- and -- and...

And I always tried to figure out
where that might have come from.

I think it may have come
from my dad

and from Tootles, and Tootles,

well, uh, let me
introduce him to you.

He's right up here.

This is Tootles,

and Tootles
has a song,

and his song goes...

# I love the Tootles song,
I love a Tootles song #

# I love my Tootles song,
I sing it all day long #

That was the Tootles song.

I --

And my dad said, "Well..."

And Tootles himself can play
the song for you.

And here he's going to play
the song and here he goes.

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And so I'm convinced that from
that came my great love of --

[ Playing dissonant chords ]

All these chords
that I later encountered

in Schoenberg and Berg
and Ives,

and everywhere else,
because what to those composers

had represented psychological
distress and torment

to me represented gorgeous,
peaceful times,

you know, surrounded by my dad
and playing music together.

That was a pretty good
performance, don't you think?

But we haven't done this
for years, guys.

Thank you, Tootles. We haven't
done this for years and years.

From the time I was nine
or 10 years old, anyway,

there were a lot of teachers
who wanted to take charge of me

and put me on a very disciplined
schedule of practice

and development
along the kind of prodigy route.

My parents were absolutely
against that.

They wanted me to have as,
quote, normal,

unquote,
a childhood as possible --

much better, in their minds,
had I been a scientist.

My grandmother's agenda
was different.

She saw me as the last
of the Thomashefskys.

[ Music and applause ]

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome.

Tonight, we're here to tell you
a story,

it's the story of Boris
and Bessie Thomashefsky,

two kids from little shtetls
in the middle of a Ukrainian

nowhere who came to America

and became the founder pioneers
of the American Yiddish theater.

They also happened
to be my grandparents.

They were big stars
who lived out the fantasies

of their audience.

And they were stars
like Richard Burton,

Elizabeth Taylor kinds of stars.

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At the Yiddish theater was all
about its audience,

immigrant innocence,
fresh off the boat,

and the mission
of the Yiddish theater

was to entertain, educate
and elevate this audience.

A hundred years ago,
my grandmother knocked 'em dead

season after season
with that show,

and 50 years later,
she had installed herself

at a fashionable
Hollywood hotel.

And every Friday,
she arrived at our house

to spend the weekend
looking after me.

Well, she was a special
kind of grandma.

She was in her 80s.
Her hair was flame red.

She had six or eight bracelets
up each arm,

a long cigarette holder,
wraparound sunglasses.

She'd settle herself on the
chaise lounge in the backyard

and she'd say, "I see you.

I see who you are.

You know, you're like me.

You're going to have
to live your life

as you have to live it,
whatever it costs.

That's what I did,
your grandma.

And you know what
they said about me?

Some said I was a femme fatale,

a bohemian,

but no one ever said

I gave anything less
than an impassioned performance.

Robison: Michael and I met in
school orchestra in 1958.

I was 11, he was 12.

So this is the same room, yeah,
the same room.

I played the cello,

he played the oboe
and the piano.

Thomas: This is where I
conducted for the first time

I was getting ready to play
the oboe in the rehearsal,

and then they announced that
our teacher couldn't make it.

And they sent this wonderful
guy, Coach Caldwell,

our football coach,
suddenly appeared here and said,

"Well, I have no idea
about this,

so we could just have
study hall,

or anybody here know
how to do this?"

I said, "Uh, I can do it."

And I walked right up here...

And I, uh, grabbed the stick,

and I said, "Okay, here we go,"
and we think

Sammartini,
"Symphony in D Major."

So, I would have been
about 13, 14.

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[ Playing notes ]

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Robison: But that's when I
really became aware of you,

because I -- when you were
playing the oboe,

and I was cello,
I wasn't really,

but then at breaks, like,
Michael would go over to

the piano and start playing,

crowd around
and listen to him.

So it was like,
oh, he's something different.

He can really play.

In addition to playing the cello
and being involved in music,

I was very athletic and outdoors
and loved to dance

to all the popular music,
so, you know,

my scene was slightly
different than Michael's.

Thomas:
I was playing in the band

at some of those
athletic events, so...

I did have a secret crush
on Josh,

he didn't know that --

I was
admiring him from afar.

Robison: I was just stunned,

and I remember just sitting
there watching this guy

who I kind of thought was kind
of an intellectual science kid,

but to see him
at that kind of amazing command

already at that age
was really striking.

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Thomas:
Along the way, I studied at USC

with an extraordinary woman
named Alice Ehlers,

and she was a wonderfully
brilliant, eccentric lady who,

[ German accent ]
She was talking with an accent

like this -- I'm not going to do
the whole shtick for you.

[ Normal voice ]
And she, at a lesson one day,

as we were struggling,

struggling through
a piece of Bach,

me 13, she 80 something.

She pulled my hand

off of the keyboard

and she said, "Dear, dear,

why do you always do
such stupid things?"

Like...
"But -- but, madame,

last week you told me to do this
right at this place!"

She said, "I tell you
to do something?

Nonsense -- I would never tell
you to do anything.

It doesn't interest me
in any way what you do

or you do not do.

I only point out to you
that in the music

there are designs and structures

and concerning these things
you must make decisions,

and there are consequences
for your decisions."

That was a major moment
in my life,

just as it was a few years later
when Ingolf Dahl,

who was becoming my composition
and musicianship

and conducting teacher, took me
to a chamber music concert.

And we listened to
the first movement of the piece

and he said,
"Did you enjoy that?"

I said, "Oh, yes, very much."

He said,
"What form was it in?"

And I said, "Well, I wasn't
listening to analyze it,

I was listening to enjoy it."

And he said,
"In classical music,

analysis is inseparable
from enjoyment."

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He was a composer,
conductor,

pianist,
musician's musician,

he was phenomenal
in the way he studied music,

the way he sat with me
in lessons.

[ Dahl vocalizing ]

Dahl:
He comes in dissonance...

[ Playing ]

Thomas: And that was another big
turning point in my mind,

that the great thing
about classical music

was that, like the human mind,

it was emotion
and it was intelligence.

It was instinct
and intelligence,

it was all of the feeling,

all of the gushing reactions
to things.

But it was also the larger
understanding of the order

and the priorities of things,

these two gorgeous things
that our minds do.

And how could the music be
understood in that way,

and how could a listener
come to understand that better

through hearing a performance --
that became my goal,

what effect will the music
have on the listener?

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Los Angeles was a city
of emigres in those years

and everybody had come
from somewhere else

and been a pretty big deal
somewhere else,

whether that was in
St. Petersburg or Vienna

or Berlin or Paris.

They were always hoping
for the really big movie deal.

This restaurant was kind of
like a magical clubhouse

in my eyes from the time
I was a very young kid,

because when I first came here,
I came here with my father,

who was working
at Universal and MGM.

And then later I would come here
when I was driving

around L.A.
in my own car,

which, typical Angeleno,
I was by age 17 or so.

There I am driving around town.
I'm listening to XERB Radio

and suddenly I hear this music
and it's so powerful

that I have to pull to the side
of the road and listen to it.

And it's "Cold Sweat" --
James Brown.

It's the way
he got things together.

His concept of time,
his understanding of

the situation of music --
his words,

"the situation of music,"

and just before he died,

I was able to do
a long interview with him.

It was so together,
it was so exact,

so --
[ Brown laughing ]

Brown: Everything has to be
right on the money with me.

Thomas: Well, you know,
I say this to

my young conductors I work with.

I say, you know, being
a conductor means you're trying

to get a lot of people
to agree where "now" is.

Brown: Now is right!

I know, because I always
say if you --

if I say "now,"
I just missed it,

because when I said now,
it was now.

Yeah, yeah.

Thomas:
And I use that, you know,

if I'm rehearsing
a piece by Stravinsky,

I'll say to the winds and brass,
how together do I want this?

# I break out,
bop, bop, bop #

# In a cold sweat, bop, bop,
bop, bop, bop, bop, bang! #

That's how together I want it.

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Grierson: USC in the '60s,

they were
magical years for both of us

in that Heifetz and Piatigorsky
and Ingolf Dahl and John Crown

and all these people
were teaching there.

Thomas: My major at USC
was initially piano.

It then shifted
to include conducting.

And into dealing with music

that was then called
avant garde music.

Grierson: Here we were,
college kids

who suddenly found ourselves,

you know, not only involved in a
lot of university music making,

but out in the community
with Monday evening concerts

and playing a lot
of contemporary music.

It was kind of a renaissance
golden age for new music,

at least for us.

Thomas: Monday Evening Concerts
was perhaps

the most adventurous concert
series in the United States.

It was a reflection
of the omnivorous curiosity

of both Stravinsky
and Schoenberg.

It presented medieval music,
renaissance music,

contemporary music
of every possible description,

so-called avant garde music.

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And very often I became
kind of,

"Oh, yeah, that kid in
Los Angeles

who knows how to do that piece."

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So it was quite an amazing
environment

in which to grow up.

Meeting Aaron Copland

and playing for Stravinsky
and getting a real sense

from his own singing how he
wanted his music to be played.

It's like a steam bath in here,
shall I turn off this --

I knew I wanted to be
a musician,

a performer, since I was 13,

but I still had that bargain
with my parents --

keep studying the science stuff;

when you're 20 years old,
you'll make a decision.

On my 20th birthday,

I got a phone call
from Gregor Piatigorsky,

who said, "You've been selected
to be the new conductor

of the Young Musicians
Foundation debut orchestra."

So that seemed to be a sign

that we were going in
the direction of music

and, of course,
show business.

The creation of the sort
of "MTT" persona,

which I began working on
as an adolescent,

was in some ways
a conscious thing to realize,

if I wanted the dreams
to become real,

I was going to have
to find a way

to come out
of my only child,

magical and enchanted
San Fernando Valley world

and learn how to actually

include and work with people.

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Suddenly, I was mostly
a conductor,

and of course, where do young
conductors go?

Tanglewood.

In the years that I was
a fellow at Tanglewood

at the end of the summer,
a prize could be given

to someone who it was felt was
an outstanding enough conductor

to be given an award named
after Serge Koussevitzky,

the eminent maestro
of the Boston Symphony

and creator of Tanglewood.

And the summer I was there,
I won that prize.

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Immediately after that summer,

when I won
the Koussevitzky Prize,

I was in New York for a few days

and I was introduced
to Leonard Bernstein,

and we had this wonderful
exchange of ideas

which quickly turned
to one liners from the show biz,

and Stravinsky,

and old stories
about Piatigorsky,

who had been a lot
with Bernstein

when Bernstein was himself
a fellow at Tanglewood.

So suddenly we began to see that
there were many areas in common.

We had the opportunity
often to get together

and look through scores,

just kind of the design of them,
the shape of them.

He came to a performance
of Mahler's Fifth

in the early days that I did,

and afterwards everyone
cleared out and I finally said,

"So what did you think
of my performance?"

And he said,
"What did I think of it?

I think that when you really
have made up your mind

what it means to you,

and what you intend to
do about it,

it won't matter to you what
I think or anybody else thinks."

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That's really pretty,
beautifully played.

Take ownership of it.

It's your story now.

It was Bach's story
how many hundred years ago

was that now?

300 or whatever!

[ Laughs ]

Here are some ideas.

So this section,

this is about, there are a lot
of little notes

littering the landscape,

which are chromatically altered.

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You feel that, you know that;

don't assume that the audience
necessarily feels it

or knows it as much as you do.

Tell them that it's special.

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Great, Brendon, try this one
thing for me once, would you:

try this --

[ Playing piano ]

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Just do that once,
see what it feels like.

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Just really -- just to hold
on to it and let your spirit

investigate what that space
feels -- really feels like.

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Okay, where exactly is that
and where is it going?

Just feel that space
someplace in here.

Man: Okay.

Thomas: Or maybe
a mixture of here and here.

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Okay, now that
you understand that,

there's more freedom
there than you think.

Man: Okay.

I've been doing a lot of
practice with a metronome, so...

This is good to --
-Thomas: Yeah, put that away.

Man:
...to think about it this way.

Thomas: That's -- you did that,
that's good. Okay?

This is the miracle
of music that...

I have a terrible toothache,
I'm getting over a cold,

I've my arm and bursitis
and all that's going on,

been chasing my tail
all over the world

and thinking, "Oh, okay,
I made this appointment

to hear this young man
play this Bach piece.

I am so tired.

How am I going
to get through this?"

But that kind of talent,
that kind of music,

it's just like, I'm ready to go
all over again!

You know?
What shoulder?

What sinus?

What weltschmerz,
what anything?

It's the music. It's just there.
It's just amazing to me.

I just feel great.

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In the autumn of 1969,
I arrived in Boston as pianist

and assistant conductor

of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra.

Ohanian: March of 1970,

I was asked to join
the Boston Symphony

in French horn section.

So we basically joined BSO
at the same time, Michael and I.

He was on a meteoric rise
at the time

from being
a West Coast phenomenon

to becoming assistant conductor
in a major orchestra.

Thomas: And I was working
with Steinberg,

accompanying all of his
rehearsals with soloists,

and would play something for him
in his room and he would say,

"Yes, um, very lovely,
very charming.

Now, next, we will see one
another on the field,

and let us hope it will be
the playing field

and not the battlefield."

Then the fourth week
of the season,

I believe, we were going on tour
to New York

with Steinberg's programs to
what was then Philharmonic Hall.

I was hanging out backstage,
Steinberg walked off the stage

and said, "You, young man,
put on your suit,

you're going to conduct."

I was frozen.

He said, "Didn't you hear me?
Put your suit on!

You're conducting."

He went on, took a bow,

came back
and went off to a hospital.

And I went on and conducted
the second half of the program.

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Raeburn: Let's move on now to
the rest of the season --

you, in fact, will now
unexpectedly be conducting

almost all
the Boston Symphony concerts

between now
and the end of April.

-Thomas: Yes.
-Raeburn: This must come

as a shock, perhaps --
pleasurable shock in many ways,

but also there must be
great responsibility,

which you've never
had to face before.

Thomas: It's an enormous
responsibility and I feel,

I must say, terribly humble
and terribly...

terribly grateful
at the same time,

I mean, I'm sort of in awe of
the responsibility

I've been given, and terribly
pleased about the confidence

that Mr. Steinberg
and management

the orchestra have had
in me.

One thing that's a comfort
as I stay up late nights

worrying about
some other problem

and some piece
that's happening next week,

while meanwhile worrying about
how tonight's performance

or next night's performance
will go --

when all of this happened,

Colin Davis was here at the time
as a guest conductor,

and he said, "Oh, yes,
when I was a young man,

very similar thing
happened to me --

conductor got sick
and I suddenly had

to conduct
six weeks of concerts."

He said, "It was absolutely
a hell of a time

because I had to
just keep working

and working and staying up.

But don't worry,
you'll get through it."

And Mr. Bernstein,

Leonard Bernstein said
very much the same thing to me.

So that was a little bit
of encouragement.

I wasn't the first person
to have gone

through this ordeal by fire.

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And I did some 40 more concerts

that first season,
and big variety of repertoire,

nearly all of which
I had never conducted before.

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I had the idea of starting
a new kind of concert series,

which would be attractive
to young audiences,

particularly in Cambridge,

and that the concerts
would have thematic connections.

I was introducing
a lot of new repertoire,

the kinds of things
I had played back

at Monday Evening Concerts.

Ohanian: One of the differences,
I think,

that Michael had
from the conductors

that normally would
pass through Boston

was that he was
very spontaneous,

and maybe that was
a bit of a fault with him

because he knew a lot,

and he understood a lot about
the music

that he was conducting.

And so he would try
to teach.

Volpe: Back then --
how to say this delicately...

I mean, the core was still

Beethoven, Brahms,
Mozart, Haydn.

Ohanian: It took a while
for the orchestra

and for the audience
to warm up to Michael's style

because he was
bringing new ideas

to a very traditional setting.

Thomas: Part of the new music
I was doing

was a series
called Spectrum Series,

which was really a kind of blow
up of what

Monday Evening Concerts
programming had been.

The programs stretched
very commonly

from the Middle Ages
till last week.

Ohanian: And it was a hard sell
for Michael

to get that concept across.

I thought it was marvelous
because, I mean,

I learned so much.

I knew the music,
but I didn't know

the story behind the music
oftentimes.

Arzewski: It was hard.

It was really, really difficult
on the older members.

And to tell you the truth,
I was --

I loved it.

I looked forward
to his Spectrum concerts.

I couldn't wait because I always
knew I would learn something.

But I never would admit it
to the older players

that I liked it.

I was afraid -- I was young,

I was a woman,
I was a new member.

I didn't want to rock the boat.

Thomas:
I began talking to the audience

and explaining the context

of the music
they were going to hear.

And one very venerable member
of the Boston Symphony board

who was not aware of the fact
that I was doing this,

that the whole idea
of the concert was to do that,

as I was speaking, said,
"Oh, why don't you shut up?!"

Stravinsky said there is
some music

that is meant not to be enjoyed,
but to be admired,

and perhaps some of this music
was in that area.

Then by accident at a party

I heard a piece of
Steve Reich's,

which was filled with melody
and harmony.

Reich: In 1970,
the phone rang,

and there was
Michael Tilson Thomas.

And he says, "I'm calling you,
I'm at the BSO,

and we'd like to do a piece of
yours -- what do you suggest?"

I said, "Well, I've got a piece
called 'Four Organs'."

There was an immediate meeting
of the minds and sensibilities.

I's a very odd piece,
and he got it right away.

And I'd say
the audience reaction

was a sort of polite boos,
polite bravos and polite --

because we were in Boston.

Thomas: The reaction in
Carnegie Hall

was entirely different.

##

Reich: The piece
"Four Organs" took place,

and basically it's
about augmentation,

short chord gets long --
very long indeed,

and the duration
of 20 minutes

is probably one of the most
abrasive pieces I ever wrote.

##

Thomas: We did this in a program

at the Boston Symphony
Orchestra.

And we got about, I'd say,
a third of the way

into the piece
when protests began to erupt.

The audience became wilder
and wilder.

The ushers were moving about
not knowing

whether they should call
the police

because certain people
were getting a bit violent.

And little by little,
the noise became so great

that even on stage with
these amplified instruments,

we could not hear one another.

And we were trying
to get through the cycle,

the complicated rhythmic cycle
of this piece.

The only way we could do it

was that we were looking
at one another

and I was going --
Steve, together,

we were going like --
"One, two, three, four,

five, six, seven, eight, nine,
one, two, three, four, five,

six, seven" --
mouthing numbers.

Reich: So by the time
the piece ended,

there were a few bravos
and overwhelming boos.

And people say there was a woman
banging on the stage

with her umbrella,
her hand, saying,

"I'll confess, I confess."

And I turned white as a sheet

because I wanted people
to love what I do.

Michael looked at me and said,
"This is history!"

Thomas: I said,
"Steve, this is it!

This is fantastic!

Do you realize what you've done?

You've gotten under their skin."

##

Reich: When Steinberg left,
I was pretty sure

that Michael wouldn't
be offered that position.

Volpe: William Steinberg was
a very, very traditional,

old-school
European conductor,

and then you have
this incredible burst of energy

and a tad bit of brashness.

And Michael Tilson Thomas,
I won't say,

is the antithesis
of William Steinberg,

but it's so different.

I don't know if there was
pushback, per se,

but certainly early on there
had to be skepticism.

And I've been told that,

I mean that, you know, how can
someone so young, I mean,

what are you going to tell us
about Beethoven

that we haven't heard
almost from the source?

Ohanian: He was too young to be
a music director

of the Boston Symphony.

So I was pretty sure that
he would not be offered that.

And so was he.

Thomas: You could imagine doing
40 subscription concerts

with the Boston Symphony,

mostly with repertoire that
you're doing for the first time,

and then developing
all these new series

and new directions of things.

This was all happening
under enormous scrutiny.

So all of that was involved
in the possibility

that came up of my becoming
the conductor,

the music director
of the Buffalo Philharmonic.

So I gratefully accepted
the position

of music director there,

where I did indeed do many,

many pieces
for the very first time,

Beethoven and Berlioz
and Brahms,

and I was having the chance to
really think about it,

and to really
try out different solutions,

because the attitude
of the orchestra wasn't

so much as it was
in some of the orchestras,

"this is the way we do this,"

it was like, "Okay, well,
you know,

how are we going to do it?"

There are a lot of
different ways it could go.

Let's explore that.

##

This is a period of my life
when I still had

no personal relationships,

I still had not come out,

and I needed to figure out
a lot of things

about what it meant
just to be alive.

And having a lot of time
just to dream again.

There were a number of pianos
in that house

on different floors.

I spent hours and hours
and hours exploring music.

This was like returning
to my father's world.

It was something in the genetic
code of the Thomashefskys

to spend hours improvising
and exploring through the notes

what was really
spiritual territory.

I began to write songs

which were for
somebody's birthday

or about some inner heartache
that I myself had

but didn't speak about.

Robison: One day I was sitting
in my West Side apartment

in October 1971,

and there was Michael
on the cover

of
The New York Times Magazine.

So I said, "Oh, so that's
what happened to Michael."

Didn't know about his sudden
rise to stardom.

A couple of years later,
my sister Paula,

who is a flutist
among the founding members

of the Chamber Music Society
of Lincoln Center,

called me up and she said,
"Hey, I'm doing a concert

with your old friend, you should
come, he's really good."

So I went, and then I saw
Michael on stage

and saw him backstage,
and he wasn't that kind of

brainy kid
with a sinus problem.

I remember
from junior high school,

but he was a star.

Thomas: And I walked in
and I just --

saw him, and I knew something.

When Josh and I met up again
in New York

in our later 20s,

and it's, "Well, let's have
dinner some night."

So we went out to have sushi
or something.

And -- but before that,

I said, let's stop
by Philharmonic Hall.

And there was a rehearsal room
that was empty.

I said, "Well, let me play you
some of my music."

Robison: First of all, I was
really impressed

because we walked in and all
the people at the stage door

knew Michael and they said,
"Oh, Michael, come in."

You know, "You need a piano?
Here you go."

So that was all, you know,
very star struck and fun for me.

And then we went into this room
and Michael

just started playing his music

and I was just staggered
to hear it,

just the freshness
and the virtuosity of it.

Thomas: I think at one point
he climbed up on the piano.

So he was kind of sitting up
here kind of looking at me,

and --

##

Robison: But what also
immediately came out

from that night,
from my getting to know Michael,

and his warmth,

and his sense
of fun and adventure.

And then he called me --
June 1976,

and I got a call from Berlin

that was Michael, which was at
that time very exotic

to get a call like that,
and he said --

Thomas: I'm going to be back in
town, whatever you're doing

next weekend, cancel it,

because I'd like to see you.

And...

That turned out to be
an iconic weekend

as far as beginning to reimagine
the shape of our lives.

##

Robison: That's our basic story.
[ Laughs ]

And then I moved
back to Buffalo.

Thomas: I learned a tremendous
amount of music in Buffalo,

but I realized it was time
to move on,

it was time to take a lot of
the repertoire

I had now learned in Buffalo

and take that
into the mainstream of national

and international orchestras.

Robison: Michael decided that it
was time to leave Buffalo.

It was a bit of a daring move
for him at the moment

because he didn't have
an immediate appointment.

What we did have at that point

was a very good
recording contract

because we were making three
or four recordings a year

with CBS Masterworks.

So at that point we could say,

Okay, we want to make
certain records

with the Philharmonia Orchestra
in London, or the LSO,

or with orchestras
in Berlin or Los Angeles.

So it was a ticket to work
in these various places.

Thomas: The situation for Josh
and me was a special one.

We were not only living together
for the first time,

we were working together,
we had become a production team.

Bousfield: Professionally,
Joshua is this kind of

invisible ring of steel
around Michael.

He's the one that protects him.

He's the one that looks out
for him the whole time

and just allows Michael
just to be able to focus

on what he needs to.

And what makes what Joshua does

so brilliant is you would
never know that.

He's invisible.

##

Burton: Michael first came onto
my radar

with the magic name
George Gershwin.

##

Because Michael made
the most wonderful recordings

of Gershwin's music,

and I felt immediately
that he was in touch somehow

with something that
other conductors didn't have.

Thomas: As you listen to
the "Rhapsody,"

you can still hear the echoes of
old Jewish songs...

##

Burton: I, as a television
producer working in the BBC,

was looking for
that kind of talent.

##

Thomas: Of black music.

##

Of Debussy.

##

Burton: We were looking for
people who would,

when talking about music,
give it a vitality which would

attract the general public,

and Michael had that in spades,
I could see that straight away.

Thomas: But somehow George's
genius forged them all into

a language that gives witness
to the ambiguous and ambivalent

ache that we all feel in this
mad whirl of a 20th century.

Burton:
One felt as one watched that,

that the spirit
of George Gershwin

had somehow flown down
from Valhalla

and was entering into
Michael Tilson Thomas's body,

he sat there and he was playing

as if it was Gershwin
at the keyboard.

##

##

##

##

##

Thomas: Those years were
an adventure in many ways.

##

Josh and I were
on the road together

and living in a lot
of different hotels

and exploring
a lot of different cities.

Robison:
And there was some years

in which we would go into

14, 15 different orchestras.

##

But he was always hungering
for his own orchestra too,

and we kept that, looking
what was going on.

##

Gillonson:
For his debut with the LSO,

Michael came in
as this unbelievable

young whiz kid conductor.

##

I was blown away
by his intensity,

his enthusiasm,
his passion for the music.

Incredible energy and an
extraordinary intellect as well.

And in 1987, I appointed him
as our principal conductor.

[ Laughing ]

Thomas: Unbelievable.

Gonna really have to work hard
to deserve, aren't I?

Well...

Marriner: Michael arrived with
amazing new ideas

of how to satisfy
a London audience,

which is often quite fickle,
actually.

Thomas:
So when this barking dog thing,

try all down bows,
do all downs.

Marriner:
So you need really interesting,

adventurous programing.

And that's what Michael
brought immediately to the LSO.

Thomas: Terrifically well.

The ratchet --
can I hear that ratchet,

by the way?
[ Ratcheting ]

Marriner: A well as
a very different approach

to orchestral politics,
really.

Thomas: Figure nine!

##

Robison: At the exact same time,

we actually started
the New World Symphony --

the same year that Michael
started the LSO in 1987

was the same year we started
the New World Symphony.

So that became our real...

our real axis between London
and Miami.

And they were two very,
very different scenes.

##

Thomas: For years, I had been

mentioning that I thought
it was a pity

that there was no
national resource

for young musicians,

and suddenly I hear that
Ted Arison wants to talk to me.

And he said, "Well, I've been

hearing something
about your idea

and I want you to make
this happen in Miami."

And that was it.

Robison:
Those were pretty wild days

when we first got to Miami.

Thomas: We were rehearsing
various places on the beach.

Members of the orchestra
were living in one hotel

or another surrounded
by snowbirds.

We realized we had to have
some kind of more permanent home

where we could have
real practice rooms.

Then Ted spotted
the Lincoln Theatre --

old movie house, it had
become a porno theater,

and now it had been shut down
for who knows how long.

And he said, well, maybe
we could make music in there.

The whole thing was renovated,

and that became the beginning
of the real solid identity

of the orchestra
having our own theater.

Smith:
When I first got to New World,

it was that this really
interesting juncture,

right -- there was
this amazing music

happening in this old
deco theater on the Mall,

on Lincoln Road.

You walked into the lobby space
and you couldn't quite believe

that you're going
to hear Mahler.

I used to love that.

And it was it was a laboratory.

In this beautiful place,

which was also just a really fun
place to kind of live

and be young and working.

##

Thomas:
When I was eight years old,

Frank Gehry was my babysitter.

Gehry: It was clear that Michael
was headed on a meteoric path,

you just didn't know where --

he could have become a...

a serial killer even.

Thomas: Well, part of
the experience

of doing this building
with Frank

did feel like going back
to being eight years old again

in a certain way,

because he lives
in such an imaginative space.

I kind of felt like both of us

were eight years old
some of the time.

Gehry: You know, I let
the client take the lead.

I get more fun out of that
because then I'm working and,

you know, I'm playing off them
so I don't repeat myself.

Thomas: We began to get this
idea of the exterior

of the building
being very minimalist

and the interior of the building
being very elaborate.

Gehry: So we decided that

the building should be
a box, period --

just make an overall box.

So it's like a very sculptural
landscape inside.

And from the outside,
you see that.

So I think people are going
to say

it's not a Frank Gehry building,

whatever that is.

It doesn't look like --
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."

[ Players tuning ]

Bousfield:
I first met Michael in 1987.

They were the happiest days
of my life in orchestras.

Thomas: One!

[ Playing
"Happy Birthday to You" ]

##

Bousfield: There were a lot of
young players in the orchestra

and he played a bit
like a rock band.

You know, we had fun.
We had so much fun.

##

Michael runs a happy ship.

Thomas: This piece,
this Bartok piece,

the piece was commissioned
by Koussevitzky.

What Koussevitzky
wanted from Bartok

was a very entertaining piece

to show off the talents of
the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Meanwhile, Bartok was
in the last days of his life,

basically, and wanted to write
this big memorial piece.

So there's a certain
conflict here.

What I think we need to do

is be as kind of entertaining
and bravura as possible.

##

##

Bousfield: Michael was 50 years
ahead of his time,

you know, in that
he really had this insight

into the meaning of phrases
that he could pass on.

Thomas: Good, okay, great,
great, great, great.

Let's just start here at 95.

Let this be more singing.

And as I said, more kind of
exuberance across the phrases

[ Vocalizing ]

Connected it up, one impulse.
One, and --

##

Burton: He had that ability
to stretch time,

he could stop and analyze
it in his mind

and know what he wanted

and know the sound he was
looking for.

Thomas: That's it.

##

Bousfield: I once --
I was playing

a little bit
of devil's advocate,

and I said, "Come on, Michael,
when you're conducting, you --

you don't really have
to show the audience

the structure
of the piece, do you?"

And he said, "No, you don't.

You have to show them
the emotion of the structure.

Thomas: Still dancing.

##

##

##

Thomas: Relationship with
the London Symphony

of having the....

direct contact with
the musicians themselves,

people who really were
making the music

that we were making together
was inspiring for me

and taught me many lessons

about working with people
and sustaining a dream.

##

##

Burton: I thought that Michael
galvanized the orchestra,

he gave it a signature,
gave it a style.

He did it through
his conducting.

He was the most brilliant
conductor,

you know, his gestures,
his hands, his eyes,

everything about Michael
was alert.

Quicksilver is the word
I use most often.

##

##

##

Thomas: So all that work was
thrilling and exciting,

but at the same time,

Josh and I expressed
to one of our managers,

you know, it's great, but...

we'd like to come back
to the United States

and have a fireplace and a dog.

Reporter:
Young, dynamic, exciting,

may be the man to propel
the San Francisco Symphony

into the very front ranks
of the world's orchestras.

Definitely the man
to make the symphony

a hot ticket this season.

Kosman: The decision to hire
Michael in 1993

was a really bold
and interesting

and daring move.

-Woman: Good evening, Maestro.
-Thomas: Good evening.

Kosman: We can
lose sight of it now

because his tenure here
has been so successful

and with such longevity.

But that was not at all clear
when he was first announced.

He was a well-known conductor,
but hadn't really proven himself

He had the London history

and that was understood
to be a success.

And he'd had the Buffalo thing.

But he still had a reputation
as being kind of brash

and ungovernable
and a little bit unpredictable.

[ Applause ]

His first season,

he did this marvelous thing
where he he said,

"Every program I conduct
with the orchestra

is going to have one piece of
music by an American composer.

And at the end
of his fifth year,

he did this festival
called American Mavericks.

##

##

##

And people flocked to it.

It was a wonderful thing,

it was a kind of
a citywide celebration almost.

I think I've said this
in one of my reviews,

that there were blue hairs
of both varieties,

you know, the old ladies
with the blue hairs

and the young punks
with the blue hair

rubbing elbows together
in this wonderful free for all.

Thomas: Mahler's been essential
to my relationship to music

and my relationship with
the San Francisco Symphony.

Oh, yeah, here's
the very first one.

The orchestra has become
a great ensemble

because of the work
we've done together.

And a lot of that work has been
on these Mahler symphonies.

A lot of my ambitions
for the San Francisco Symphony

were part of this larger ideal
I have that

orchestral performance should be
much like solo performance

or chamber performance,

that all the imagination
of sound

and phrasing and nuance
that I had heard

and the Heifetz/Piatigorsky
master classes,

this is just what we should
be doing in an orchestra

that, simply because
it involves 90, 100 people,

we shouldn't be checking
all of our solo

or chamber music ideals
at the door.

Upbeat to two,
all the strings, please.

##

##

The thing I always loved
the most about Mahler's music

was not the shattering climaxes,

but rather the lyrical moments
in it,

in the songful elements in it,

the quiet moments

when you're establishing
a kind of atmosphere

which seems to flow
along ideally

as if it's all by itself.

Great, great.

So can we sort of move
on a little bit more,

but just take the tiniest
bit of time

to set up the four schlags
each time they happen?

[ Vocalizing ]
Shazam!

[ Vocalizing ]

Generally a little more
forward motion,

but setting up
the four schlags --

okay, last time, figure two.

Never less than forte
in the melody.

Let's do it.

##

Barantschik: The conductor
and the orchestra,

conductor and musician,

its collective working,

and he gives us freedom
to express ourselves.

##

We know what he wants,
but it's a two-way road.

It's always
a work of colleagues.

##

Thomas:
Very gentle sforzandi.

Izotov:At the end of today's rehearsal,

when we played our -- it was our
dress rehearsal of Mahler Five,

we were about to leave the stage

and we're about to reenter
the real world.

And he just said, "Excuse me,
just one more thing to say."

And then he said,
"I would ask you to

play tonight's concert

and preserve in it

the delicacy, the tenderness,

the sweetness and the beautiful
qualities of life

that Mahler so very much
intended in his music,

most of these qualities,

a lot of us
don't get to experience

in today's world anymore."

##

##

##

Kosman: You say the Mahler Five
is not the same tonight

as it was 10 years ago.

Listen, my friend,
the Mahler Five

is not the same tonight
as it was last night,

and it's not the same
as it will be tomorrow night.

That's how much fluidity
and spontaneity

and the improvisation
goes into that.

And one of the things
that's happened very noticeably

over the last 20-some-odd years
that Michael's been here is

that he has brought in musicians
and retained musicians

who share that
kind of commitment with him.

Most of the musicians
who are in the orchestra now

have been shaped by 25 years of
working with him

to have that kind of spontaneous
and improvisatory esthetic

that's so important to him --
I mean, he has instilled that

in the orchestra
and in the ensemble,

in these things,
they last, you know,

there's a kind of
an institutional memory

so that even when he's gone,

that kind of -- those kind
of esthetic priorities

are going to linger
for a very long time.

##

##

##

##

##

##

[ Cheering and applause ]

[ Indistinct chatter ]

Thomas:
Good evening, everybody.

I'm Michael Tilson Thomas,
"MTT."

I'm so happy
to be welcoming you tonight

to this WALLCAST Concert,

which is the start of
the New World Symphony's

31st season.

When we started in the Lincoln,
we always had loudspeakers

and a small television screen
outside

so that anyone passing by
would be able to hear the music

and see what was
going on inside.

This idea was very much part
of the new building

to include a large wall
of the building,

which would be
a projection surface.

Morning, everybody.
Okay, we're back to Britten.

So almost unprecedented thing.

Let's start in the fugue
at letter J.

And this is such
an unusual moment

because it is a moment
during which the winds

and strings
are going to have to wait

and listen while the brass
rehearse something,

as opposed to
the other way around,

which is nearly the way
it always is.

So --
[ Humming ]

##

##

That's nice, that's nice --
so the more that charm detail

is there,
you know, the better.

Let's take the trumpets now.
Your entrance, please.

##

Great, can more of it be
at the same volume level?

I think you're doing
a little too much --

[ Vocalizing ]

So it's all at the kind
of fanfare-y chord thing,

all the same, but pretty.

##

That's that's really good,
the first part of that, guys.

Trombones and tuba,
here we are -- one and...

##

Very nice, very nice.

All right, the whole
brass section.

##

##

##

That -- now!

That's what
they call polyphony.

Okay!

##

##

##

Man: Get ready for...

[ Applause ]

Thomas: You know, for many
years, the New World Symphony --

Being here with the New World
Symphony in Florida

over the last 30 years
now has been

perhaps the most important
thing I've done in my life.

##

##

I'm lucky enough to be
in a situation

with all these young people

that I can expand
a lot of the music world

and expand a lot
of their understanding

in a way that my wonderful
teachers did for me.

Volpe: What Michael's doing
is perpetuating an art form,

perpetuating institutions.

I mean, every American orchestra
of consequence

has people he's trained
in the New World Symphony.

He wanted there to be a future
for classical music.

##

##

##

##

##

##

##

##

##

##

##

##

##

[ Cheering and applause ]

Man: "Come by the fire.

Let your salty tears" --

What's your line in that song?

Thomas:
Oh, it's, "Never you mind

if your sunny morning
starts turning gray.

It's much too early
to be singing a sorry tune.

A hazy afternoon
can make a wonderful day.

Come by the fire.

Let my loving take the sting
from your tears,

and don't be thinking that
your life is a one-way door.

Good things are still in store.

No matter what you might fear."

#
Let my loving take the sting
from your tears
#

#
And don't go thinkin'
that your life was...
#

##