MTT and Shostakovich
As much as we may make him out to be, Michael Tilson Thomas isn’t the next Leonard Bernstein. My guess is that MTT doesn’t want to be Bernstein despite the mentoring MTT received from Bernstein. That said, I was very impressed with MTT’s channeling of Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts with his series Keeping Score.
The episode I saw was the one on Shostakovich’s Symphony #5. The whole thing was simply brilliant. Nothing kitschy, overblown, or simplistic. The cinematography was well done. The narration was clear and intelligent. The San Francisco Symphony sounded great. (This isn’t always the case.)
I’m not a huge MTT fan. I’ve always considered him a lightweight among conductors. I’m much more impressed with his piano playing and overall musicianship. No jealousy here. Just admiration. Why don’t I like his conducting? Well, I’ve never seen him live. But I’ve seen him on TV at least a dozen times over the past 30 years. And every single time I’m amazed any human being could follow him.
When I took my conducting classes at San Jose State Prof. Higo Hirada, we had to make ourselves “understood”. I’ll never forget one of our exams: conduct Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. In silence. From memory. The beat and every cue had to be crystal clear. Ouch! That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done musically.
Lots of conductors are all over the map when it comes to detecting anything close to a beat or comprehensible cue. MTT isn’t the worst offender by any means. But for all his theatrics I find Bernstein’s baton to be more clear, articulate, and, well, punctual. Check out this You Tube of Bernstein (1979) doing the fourth movement of the Shostakovich 5th.
Now it could be that there’s some weird spatial delay between the visuals and the audio on TV. (I don’t experience this problem on some You Tube clips, the above Bernstein clip aside. The Mahler clips that I posted months ago do not exhibit this disconnect between the baton and the sound.)
I’ve always felt that most of the work has got to go on during rehearsals. Would I count (ha ha - excuse the pun!) on following MTT’s baton during a concert? No way. Clearly, it would be too late (gosh! I’m pun crazy it seems!) by then.
So, no. I’m not a big fan of MTT. That’s why if I can highly recommend Keeping Score, you know it’s gotta be good.
