Armed with a profound feeling for music’s expressive power and genuine empathy for works by an extraordinary range of composers, Michael Tilson Thomas preserved the best aspects of tradition while bringing fresh life to the most familiar of pieces. As an accomplished composer and fine solo pianist, he brought insights gained from both to the art of conducting, striving always to uncover the deep meaning contained within the works in his vast repertoire. His advocacy of American music—whether by his mentor Bernstein or by Gershwin, edgy modernists such as Ives and Lou Harrison, or the minimalism of John Adams and Steve Reich—helped cement its place in the international repertoire, while his passion for Mahler, Beethoven, Berlioz, Debussy and Russian repertoire resounds in recordings charged with an alchemical blend of intensity and refinement. The qualities of Tilson Thomas’ conducting proved consistent over the course of a recording career that began in the late 1960s. His interpretations, while hallmarked by rhythmic precision and clarity of thought, were above all suffused with heartfelt expression, enshrined in the opening track in this Essentials playlist, a coruscatingly beautiful reading of the “Adagietto” from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Listen to the energy he brings to “Ibéria” from Debussy’s Images, and the French flair that courses through the mighty “Oath of Reconciliation” from Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz, one of the conductor’s favourite composers. Above all, Tilson Thomas brought joy to the art of making music, whether to the folksy rhythms of Copland’s Rodeo, the pizzazz of Bernstein’s On the Town or the irresistible “Scherzo” from Schumann’s Second Symphony.