Keeping Score - Tchaikovsky Symphony No.4 - Michael Tilson Thomas

We get a very generous – and at times humorous, and always genial – narration by Michael Tilson Thomas as he prepares a performance with his orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony (which is surely one of the country's great orchestras although it is not generally listed, wrongly so in my opinion, with the so-called Big Five American orchestras). We also focus in on several of the individual players to find out how they prepare for the rehearsals. There is also a scene in which the orchestra talks with a group of children about how the orchestra works, and this includes a funny moment where the piccolo player discusses how nervous she gets playing that incredibly difficult solo in the the Tchaikovsky Fourth's third movement. The rehearsal scenes are then followed by an exciting and fully satisfying live performance of the piece in San Francisco's marvelous Davies Symphony Hall. Sound and video are first-rate.