| February 24, 2025 Dear Friends, Three years ago I wrote to tell you that I’m battling Glioblastoma. The three and a half years since the initial diagnosis have been a special time in my life, filled with friends, family, and music. They have also been challenging as I had to undergo a second operation and manage complications from the treatments that have held the tumor at bay. My doctors have informed me that the tumor has returned. We continue to work with the superb group at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center. There are treatment options, but the odds are uncertain. Joshua and I are in San Francisco with the pups, and we take occasional jaunts to Bolinas. Our home is filled with memories of a full life. There’s a keyboard on each floor and occasionally a piece by CPE Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, a Broadway melody, or one of my own tunes seem to emerge. Sometimes I can share these moments. Other times I find my own personal peace and solace. Now is the time to wind down my public appearances. During the past year I had the opportunity to come full circle with musicians and orchestras I hold most dear. My work with the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic was very special. In March I have concerts planned with the New World Symphony and, on April 26, the San Francisco Symphony is celebrating my 80th birthday. At that point we all get to say the old show business expression, “It’s a wrap.’ A “coda” is a musical element at the end of a composition that brings the whole piece to a conclusion. A coda can vary greatly in length. My life’s coda is generous and rich. Life is precious. |
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From one of the bravest musicians on the planet, one of considerable artistic worth. His birthday was a cause to celebrate the value of artistic nourishment.
A dumbfoundingly courageous, dignified statement, full of grace and gratitude.
God Bless You, Michael – it was 52 years ago when we spoke about Ives, Harrison Birtwistle and Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody – I’ve never forgotten our conversation and the sheer aesthetic sense you spoke.
I recall an interview I did with MTT for What’s On in London about Tchaikovsky to herald an LSO series of his music including rarities. He was very interesting about how this music should be performed. On another occasion MTT conducted an LSO Mahler Nine memorable for a final Adagio lasting half-an-hour and superbly controlled to nothingness, and before it a ‘Rondo-Burleske’ notable for rhythmic precision and emotional objectivity, with one passage, near the end, when the horns cut through with a malice that was as electrifying as it was unexpected.
I interviewed him yonks ago. He was staying in a flat near St James’s (with Joshua) and as I recall he had a stinking cold. Once past various topics (don’t ask me what they were) we got onto the subject of Copland. I wondered whether the LSO was ‘loose-limbed’ enough to cope with Copland’s very American manner of ballet (personally speaking I don’t think Copland’s own LSO recordings quite make the grade). “Are you saying that the LSO can’t play Copland?” was his response. “No that’s not what I’m saying,” I replied, “I’m just questioning whether they play him with the right accent” (which is precisely what Doráti achieves on his LSO recording of ‘Billy the Kid’). I was therefore surprised at the feedback that he enjoyed the interview! So did I. An intensely interesting and likeable man.