Acclaimed LA-born-and-raised conductor Michael Tilson Thomas conducts his own song cycle on lyric poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. Tilson Thomas said he was influenced by Schubert, Mahler, and Berg in this cycle but blends that with a decidedly American point of view that the San Francisco Chronicle likened to a Schubertian cowboy song. MTT wraps up this program with Sergei Prokofievs inspiring war-time Symphony, one of his greatest accomplishments; its overwhelmingly uplifting spirit struck an immediate chord with audiences around the world and has done so ever since.