MTT: Messiaen is ‘like cocktail hour in heaven’
OrchestrasMichael Tilson Thomas is in sparkling form in an interview with Mark Swed:
Tilson Thomas did playfully describe Messiaen’s sensory religiosity as “a kind of cocktail hour in heaven” and compared the Villa-Lobos’ “Chôros” to an old movie “with virgins and a volcano.” He is now about to do both of those works with the San Francisco Symphony, of which he was music director from 1995 to 2020.
Savour the full sparkle here.
Linking to paywall-hidden articles is just cruel, NL
It’s not paywalled here… sorry!
I was able to access the entire article and unlike some paywalls it did not tease me with a “free” 10 seconds but I could read it to the end. So keep trying folks.
No paywall for me. But fwiw, if you ever run into those paywalls that loads seconds after the webpage, just click the ‘x’ on the refresh button when the article is loaded but before the paywall shows up (please delete if it’s improper information here)
. . . with the cocktails spiked with hallucinogenics.
Very moving and brillliant article.
What a wonderful article. It’s heartening to know that Michael’s musical, intellectual and physical functions are still functioning along with his typical passion and robustness. He’s such an extraordinary man.
It was my privilege to prepare two opera for Michael in the 80s. Fidelio and Tosca. He learned from me but I learned a hell of a lot more from him, obviously.
It was a special treat to work along side Josh Robison as well. What a fantastic fellow he is and his nearly lifelong partnership with Mike, emotionally and professionally, is a great union to be admired.
There was also the huge pleasure of getting to know Roberta and Teddy Thomas, Michael’s parents. That was in Houston. Particularly memorable were trips to Jamail’s- then Houston’s great grocery store- and The Galleria, where Teddy, in a wheel char, Roberta and I got stuck in an elevator. It was all a lot more amusing than it sounds.
Prosperity and Health for still a long time to both Mike and Josh.
His bravery in dealing with such a sad health situation deserves respect and admiration. Unfortunately however, his “sparkling form” does not extend to his conducting (that was never really great) these days. We should definitely wish him to enjoy the rest of his life with as little suffering as possible, but then all the orchestral musicians and their audiences (not to mention music itself) should not suffer either.
I forgot to mention that MTT wrote a song set to the Walt Whitman text “We Two Boys Together Clinging” for Mr. Hampson and me. We performed it quite often in recital but we did record it for EMI on a cd of Whitman texts set by many composers.
(NYC based composer Gerald Busby also wrote a song specifically for us.)
The Whitman cd is rather tricky to find these days, sadly, but it was a project of love and passion on both our parts for the poet and his work.
Thank you again Michael for your gift to Thom and me.
He once said of Morton Feldman that his music was ‘ deluxe Webern” which I absolutely love .