MTT, Claycomb: Acclaim in Europe

Among enthusiastic responses to Michael Tilson Thomas' current stint with the London Symphony Orchestra:

"From matinee idol to scholar," says Ivan Hewett's article in The Telegraph:

Time can change people in unexpected ways. When Michael Tilson Thomas first came to the world’s attention in the Sixties it was as a super-sharp, perfectly self-assured wunderkind. In his early 20s he was already a brilliant piano player and conductor, working with luminaries of that time such as Stravinsky and Boulez. By the '70s he was conducting the major American orchestras, and later became a popular presenter of TV programmes on classical music, where he would dart with suave omnicompetence from microphone to piano to conductor’s podium.

His slender matinée-idol figure and glossy-haired good looks were a familiar sight over here, too. He soon became a favoured guest of the London Symphony Orchestra, and between 1988 to 1995 was its Principal Conductor. And as if that weren’t enough, he was a composer.

Naturally such overflowing facility aroused a certain suspicion in some English critics, who whispered that he made it all seem too smooth and easy. Today the great musical gifts are still as striking as ever, as are the elegantly bouffed hair and slender figure, and the punctilious attention to verbal exactitude.

But there’s been a profound change. Tilson Thomas’s thin frame now bespeaks the scholar and intellectual more than the matinée idol, and the flow of words often pauses while he searches for the exact word. One gets the sense of a deeply serious man who lives on his nerves, and has a super-sharp awareness of his cultural surroundings ...

Another homage: "One of the world's most renowned and flamboyant conductors," says the teaser for an extensive conversation with MTT on BBC. Suzy Klein's interview begins 33 minutes into the broadcast.

And, getting ready for MTT's return to San Francisco for the June 19-21 Stravinsky programs in Davies Hall: here he is, performing the four-hand version of The Rite of Spring with Leonard Bernstein. As one comment says: When Stravinsky first performed this piano version, his partner was Debussy.

Also, thanks to a note from Grace Abiko, podcast of the Glyndebourne Ariadne, with Laura Claycomb, "our Zerbinetta," is available at the Glyndebourne demand link for a while. Abiko says the time frame is "about two-three weeks," but don't bet on it, better get to it quickly.

To navigate, go to "Watch Online," wait through a seven-minute introduction, a couple of minutes of credits, then, at 8:38, Act 1 begins. It's over at 47 minutes, but the video automatically continues into the intermission and Act 2.

Claycomb, a regular visitor with SFS these days, but - strangely - not with San Francisco Opera, is now singing her first Queen of the Night in Bregenz, under the baton of an old Merola alumnus, Patrick Summers.