Going out in style, Michael Tilson Thomas leaves San Francisco orchestra at turning point
Conductor who led San Francisco Symphony for 25 years received musical tribute as he took the podium for last time amid renewed cancer fight
San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie had declared it Michael Tilson Thomas Day. City Hall glowed MTT’s trademark blue. Davies Symphony Hall, where Tilson Thomas presided over the San Francisco Symphony for an influential quarter century, was festooned with giant blue balloons.
For Tilson Thomas, it all was the culmination of what he declared in February: “We all get to say the old show business expression, ‘It’s a wrap.’”
Despite starting treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer in summer 2021, Tilson Thomas astonishingly continued to conduct throughout the United States and even in Europe for the next three and a half years.
But in February he learned that the tumour had returned, and the conductor declared April 26’s San Francisco Symphony gala, billed as an 80th birthday tribute to the Los Angeles native, would be his last public appearance.
He was led to the podium by his husband, Joshua Robison, who remained seated on stage, keeping a watchful eye.
Tilson Thomas started with Benjamin Britten’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell, better known as The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.