I stayed up late to watch a very cool show on PBS – it was conductor Michael Tilson Thomas going through the details of how the San Francisco Symphony prepares to play a piece like Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony. When he talks about his feelings on how certain passages should be interpretted, the passion he feels for the music is awesome and obvious.
I’ve always liked that piece, and I’ve had a soft spot for MTT ever since I saw him conduct when I was a student 22 years ago at Iowa State – I think he was with the Los Angeles Symphony back then.
They’re playing the show again this afternoon at 4:00, so we’re taping it. You can find out all about it here: Great Performances . Keeping Score: MTT on Music – there’s a well done Flash presentation there as well that’s worth playing with that includes an interactive score of one of the movements.