The American musician Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT from now on) needs no introduction to lovers of recorded music. For five decades he has conducted superb recordings with, among others, the Boston and London Symphony Orchestras, the Buffalo and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the San Francisco Orchestra (of which he was Chief Conductor from 1995 to 2020), and the New World Symphony, based in Florida, which MTT founded in 1987 to give young orchestral players their first opportunity to shine. 

Like his mentor and friend Leonard Bernstein, MTT is a conductor, pianist, teacher, and composer. Also, like many conductor/composers, it is the area of composition that is most affected by a lack of free time. Bernstein found this, and Esa Pekka Salonen took a break from conducting in order to address it in his own case. It is no secret that MTT is suffering from an aggressive brain cancer: The proceeds from the sale of this set go towards funding research into the disease. The recordings are also released to mark the composer’s 80th birthday.

Not much of MTT’s own music has been heard on...