Against the average of a decade leading an orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas' 20th anniversary with the San Francisco Symphony is unusual, and the orchestra is celebrating it in various ways. MTT's own addition to the festivities is the publication, on Nov. 11, of Masterpieces in Miniatures, a CD of some of the conductor's favorite short works and concert encores:
I wanted to give a present to our whole San Francisco family and to our listeners everywhere. What better way than to fashion a garland of these charming pieces? Playing them is now nearly a lost art.The musicians and I have taken a wonderful voyage in creating these performances, which are a mixture of my musical memories and the imagination and virtuosity of my colleagues.
See and introduction to and excerpts from the CD. The disc includes both well-known and rarely-played pieces, such as Henry Litolff’s Scherzo from Concerto symphonique No. 4 (with Yuja Wang), Mahler’s Blumine, Charles Ives' “The Alcotts” from A Concord Symphony in Henry Brant's orchestration, Fauré’s Pavane, Claude Debussy’s La Plus que lente, Franz Schubert’s Entracte No. 3 from Rosamunde, Sergei Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, Delius’ On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, and more. MTT explains:
The short pieces in this album exist in various versions. Many began as piano pieces but were, except for the Ives, orchestrated by their composers. They were often played as encores by musicians who took special delight finding the most personal way of presenting them.This recording pays homage to the tradition of these pieces. It marks the beginning of my twentieth season as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony and my seventieth birthday.
The recording can be preordered on iTunes.com/SFSymphony and from SFSymphony.org/store.