Never in the past century did the San Francisco Symphony pull off a greater celebration for its maestro than this week for Michael Tilson Thomas. Fanfares, a Standing O., countless rainbow lights, a video from Yo-Yo Ma, bouquets. It was a mass laudatory love-in for the guy on the podium these 25 seasons, ending with flowers offered by the mayor of the city, Governor Newsom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other luminaries. He even got “25” jerseys matching every professional sports team within a 50-mile radius.

You’d have thought this was MTT’s grand finale. Instead, it was merely the start to his valedictory season with, if conceivable, an even grander ending on departure next spring, after conducting another 50-plus concerts in between. Only a Dickens grouch could come away untouched.

How can they top this—fireworks indoors at Louise Davies’ Symphony Hall next year, perhaps?

The music? Glad you asked. At their inaugural season concert, the SFS players were already in mid-season form, with the various sections deservedly spotlighted as each came forth in Britten’s musicians’ showpiece “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” I was mightily impressed by the “Ode to Joy” finale of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, which in this Beethoven anniversary will be coming OUT our ears by the time his 250^thactually rolls around 15 months from now. The SFS Chorus, some 110 strong, never sounded better in this tonsil-busting repertory, with those sopranos tightrope-walking nonstop high A’s, while the men were robust and uniquely authoritative, following in the footsteps of rafter-shaking baritone soloist Ryan McKinny.

And Beethoven’s was very much a message for us today. In the “Ode” section he quotes then rejects music from each of the troubled, anguished early movements, then intones Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” text, with the punchline admonishing us prophetically about all the political discord of today,“Nicht diese Töne!”(Not these tones!”). And the “Joy” was then launched with love and vigor—a message for us on several levels.

MTT’s carefully crafted program included four composers he had met or known, including Britten, Gordon Getty (in his choral arrangement of the timeless “Shenandoah”) and Aaron Copland. McKinny sang pieces from Copland’s “Old American Songs,” as if from a far-off land.

There was too “The Star-Spangled Banner.” But even with MTT’s jokes about his advanced age (74), I’m assured that he never knew Francis Scott Key at all. Most encouraging of all, MTT has apparently made a gratifying recovery from his “cardiac procedure” of summer, leading off with an overture by Glinka, “Ruslan and Ludmila,” which gives the baton a real mid-season workout. Indeed the music director’s nimble oversight of music has lost nothing over the years, and his Beethoven was downright thought-provoking,

The concert had opened festively with Mouret’s “Fanfare-Rondeau,” brass-percussion music that had waited two centuries to become a New World hit on TV’s “Masterpiece Theatre.”

The Sept. 4 gala concert leads into the SFS subscription season starting Sept. 12. The gala also recognized MTT’s longtime partner and husband of five years, Joshua Robison.

THE HUMBLEST MAESTRO?—Instead of entering from the wings then bathed with applause, MTT chose the unprecedented low-key entry way, striding down the aisle unobtrusively and mounting the stage from below. He had already chucked the formal attire years ago. Will this start a trend, forcing future conductors to check their egos at the door?

SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, MTT conducting, with SFS Chorus, vocalists. Davies Symphony Hall, S.F. For SFS info: (415) 864-6000 or go online.

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