Michael Tilson Thomas was in a good mood.
Entering the stage at Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday night to an instant standing ovation, a playful smirk came across his face. While applause continued, he extended his baton toward concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, and playfully poked the blue ribbon on his lapel.
Then, with an amused shrug, the 79-year-old conductor laughed, as if to say, “Let’s not be weighed down by all this gravitas here.”
Because surely, there was gravitas. This weekend’s performances of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony could well constitute the last time Thomas conducts the San Francisco Symphony.
Having been diagnosed in 2021 with an aggressive form of brain cancer, Thomas is noticeably weaker onstage and in public appearances. The beloved figure who led the orchestra for 25 years recently withdrew from conducting two other programs at Davies. It’s possible he could return to the podium in the future, but as of now, this weekend marks his final concerts on the symphony’s calendar.
Not that you’d have known it from his demeanor Thursday night. While leading a richly rewarding performance of Mahler’s Fifth — a program that repeats Friday and Saturday — a beaming grin was present on his face. Evidently, he needed this music as much as the music needed him.
Or maybe, just maybe, his smile came from settling a score. In 2022, filmgoers watched as Cate Blanchett’s character in Tár took a tasteless dig at Thomas, likening his conducting to “screaming like a [expletive] porn star.” The central piece performed in the film? You guessed it: Mahler’s Fifth.
MTT announced these performances just months after the film opened, and on Thursday night, he showed Tár how it’s done.
Mahler composed the Fifth Symphony in 1901–1902, and it’s often credited with ushering in 20th century composition. Deeply evocative, it fits nearly every human emotion into 75 minutes. It zig-zags from theme to theme, presenting soft timpani and pizzicatos along with thundering, full-throated brass passages.
On Thursday, in the hands of Thomas — who made his conducting debut with the San Francisco Symphony 50 years ago, with Mahler’s Ninth — every few minutes yielded a new delight, from its alluring first measures to its thrilling ending.
Once or twice during the music, one noticed his health as he steadied himself by grasping his left hand on the podium. His conducting retained its rhythm, even if it lessened in dynamism; he rarely called for volume adjustments, or vigorously punctuated key moments. At one climactic downbeat in the first movement, the strings, brass and tympani all landed just a millisecond off from each other.
But this is Mahler. Every cell in Thomas’ body knows this music. The orchestra does, too, and rose to the occasion — especially in the beloved Adagietto, one of Mahler’s most heart-wrenching pieces of music. (Thomas’ mentor, Leonard Bernstein, so loved it that he was reportedly buried with the score.)
It was during the Adagietto that I couldn’t help but meditate on Thomas’ long history here. Personally, I thought back to first seeing him at Davies in 1995, conducting Stravinsky with violin prodigy Midori; again in 2001, valiantly conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 one day after 9/11; and in 2015, premiering the groundbreaking SoundBox series. He’s inspired multiple generations in the Bay Area (the Mahler vinyl bins at Amoeba Music are, as of this writing, completely sold out), and is indelibly woven into the cultural fabric of San Francisco.
After the piece’s rousing finale — before the audience spilled out onto the newly christened “MTT Way” — Thomas stood for a seven-minute standing ovation. It would have gone on longer, too, were it not for him theatrically sighing and miming to the enthusiastic crowd that it was time to drink milk and go to bed, drawing laugher among the cheers.
As if to console anyone with tears in their eyes at this celebration of life and an incredible career, for a second, at least, the message was: don’t be sad.
Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the San Francisco Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 again on Friday, Jan. 26, and Saturday, Jan. 27. Details here.
