Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, April 2018

"Life is precious.” - Michael Tilson Thomas

When I visited Miami's New World Symphony back in 2018, I had the chance to ask NWS co-founder Michael Tilson Thomas, who had recently announced his departure as Music Director in San Francisco, if he'd ever imagined a New World without him.

“Well, it's not really something I can control," Thomas said. "But, there are many musicians and alumni who have come here repeatedly as coaches who could easily carry on. In that sense, the continuity is already there."

MTT stepped down from New World in 2022, not long after he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a lethal form of brain cancer. (He was succeeded by Stéphane Denève the following year.) Despite a grim prognosis - most patients die in less than a year - Thomas has continued to guest conduct orchestras across Europe and the U.S., including this season's opening night with the NY Phil. All indications were that the cancer was in check, and that if anything, the act of conducting has been its own form of therapy.

"It feels really great," Thomas said after conducting the BSO at Tanglewood in 2022. "It feels restorative.”

But, last month, Thomas revealed to the world that the tumor had returned, and would be canceling all of his future engagements in order to focus on his health. With two exceptions: a long-planned 80th birthday concert in San Francisco on April 26, featuring the SF Symphony and Chorus. And a pair of concerts this weekend in Miami Beach, where he'll conduct the New World fellows one final time in Beethoven's mighty 5th symphony. (Alasdair Neale will handle Mozart's Don Giovanni overture and Piano Concerto No. 14, with Jeremy Denk.) A fitting end to a long and generous musical career.

I'll be in Miami Beach for what I'm sure will be an experience filled with the widest range of emotion; there are still a few tickets left for Sunday's matinee if you plan on joining. 

Matias Tarnopolsky and Gustavo Dudamel at David Geffen Hall, 3/11/25. Peter Matthews

To be frank, I couldn't care less about what the NY Phil is playing in 2026.

For me, yesterday's 2025-26 season announcement at Geffen Hall was about one thing: seeing whether Gustavo Dudamel, who's in town this week to conduct the Philharmonic in Varèse, Ravel and Gershwin, could pass the eye test in front of the media and other interested parties as the Phil's next Music and Artistic Director. Dudamel doesn't take over for two more seasons but, in what's become de rigeur among major orchestras with MD vacancies, he'll do halfsies with the LA Phil next season as "Music Director Designate", leading six weeks of concerts in New York, including opening night. 

Before Gustavo took the stage set up in the Geffen Hall lobby, he was introduced by the Phil's freshly minted CEO Matías Tarnopolsky, who took over in January from Deborah Borda. (No doubt she's hoping it sticks this time.) Tarnopolsky, 54, comes to New York from the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he'd been CEO since 2018. An affable Brit who happens to have been born in Argentina, Tarnopolsky and Dudamel have known each other for two decades, back to when Matías was in charge of artistic planning at the NY Phil (2005-09).

"I can take absolutely no credit for the planning of this season," Tarnopolsky charmingly confessed before ticking off some highlights: the world premiere of David Lang's evening-length choral work the wealth of nations; a crowd-sourced orchestration of Frederic Rwzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated; and a new choral work by Ellen Reid, co-commissioned with the LA Phil. 

And then, with perhaps a bit too much stagecraft, Dudamel entered from stage left, trailed by one of several cameras there to record the event. (At least they didn't have walk-on music.) After warmly embracing Tarnopolsky, Dudamel shared how prior to that morning's rehearsal, he sat in the Music Director's studio for the first time, surrounded by the portraits of past music directors: Mengleberg, Mahler, Toscanini, Bernstein. 

"I'm overwhelmed," he said. "It's a special feeling."

Nico Muhly with Renaud Capuçon, Marin Alsop and the New York Philharmonic, 3/10/25. Peter Matthews

According to his publisher's website, Nico Muhly has written more than 300 works over the past 23 years, including operas, ballets, choral music, chamber music, and film scores - not to mention his work as an arranger for everyone from Sufjan Stevens, to Björk, to Sigur Rós. Of late, he's been on a bit of a concerto kick, with no fewer than four concertos premiering this year alone (bringing his total to 33 and counting.)

One of those, the Violin Concerto, was performed for the first time last week by the New York Philharmonic with guest conductor Marin Alsop. Unfolding over three movements played without pause, the concerto - Nico's fourth attempt at the genre - was less virtuosic showpiece than a deft interplay between soloist and orchestra, requiring French violinist Renaud Capuçon, composed yet energetic in his tailored tux, to play nearly nonstop for almost its entire 23 minutes. Filled with pulses, loops and phasing, the music inhabited the same sound world as Steve Reich and John Adams while exhibiting Nico's own distinct blend of shimmering textures and high-pitched tonality, occasionally enhanced by "suspended metals." Among the curious listeners I spotted on Saturday night were several big-name composers, including Kevin Puts, Matthew Aucoin and Nico's onetime boss, Philip Glass.  

The real star of the night, however, was Alsop, who conducted the remainder of the program from memory, and with total command. Brandishing a purple baton in honor of International Women's Day and her own new initiative to promote women conductors, Alsop led crisp, striking performances of Beethoven's Leonore No. 3 overture, Brahms' Haydn Variations and especially Stravinsky's Firebird, which got myself and everyone around me to jump out of their seat at the downbeat of the "Infernal Dance." The plaintive, exposed solo horn passage which begins the majestic Finale was nailed by guest Katy Woolley, principal horn of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, just the latest in a long line of subs for Phil Myers, who left the Phil eight years ago. (Presumably, Woolley wasn't the audible flub I heard during the Haydn variations.)

Forget about Diversity initiatives: with this performance, Alsop proved once again that she is one of the most formidable conductors on the planet, with a clear vision and the ability to get precisely what she wants, at least most of the time. 

Nico's trumpet concerto Doom Painting receives its world premiere this weekend in Belgium with Tine Thing Helseth. Meanwhile, his Sounding for piano and orchestra (2024) will be performed for only the second time this week (March 13-16) by Adam Tendler and the New Jersey Symphony; tickets and information here. As for the NY Phil, if you want to see them perform this week with incoming music director Gustavo Dudamel, you'll need a bit of luck: all performances are sold out. 

Marin Alsop and the New York Philharmonic, 3/8/25. Peter Matthews

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