MCK Shillaker
Another sloppy performance by the SFSO B-Team, thanks in part to the seemingly careless attitude of their ringmaster. Too much conducting, not enough rehearsing. I found MTT's unnecessary - often overtly theatrical - gesticulations distracting and noticed too that - at one point during the last movement - he confused his string players. Two requests: 1, MTT next time, please focus on the music rather than the audience (some people sometimes arrive late; live with it.) 2, SFSO, please send us your A-Team next time.All in all, a disappointing, thoroughly un-Mahlerian performance.

Anne, Winchester
I agree entirely with the other comments in that the entire interpretation was totally lacking in emotion and brilliance. Very disappointing from an orchestra and conductor of such renown. All very much in contrast with the Mahler 3 a couple of weeks ago from Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which was absolutely spellbinding from start to finish with second to none instrumental playing.

Christian Hoskins
I watched Tilson Thomas's Mahler 7 on BBC4 and enjoyed it very much. The first and last movements weren't perhaps as fully purposeful as they could have been, but the middle movements were full of Mahlerian grotesquery, irony and beauty. I was in the hall for the previous night's concert and thought that the orchestra's playing in both concerts was superb.

Romeo Nadasan
The conductor tried something new, sometimes his attempt succeeded.

Peter van Dooren
I was intending to queue for an Arena place for what on paper promised to be a special Mahler occasion. How glad I am now that I stayed at home to watch Michael Tilson Thomas on BBC4, apparently attempting to break the world speed record for conducting Mahler’s Seventh. Did he simply forget to take his foot off the accelerator? Of course, in some key passages where speed IS of the essence (for example, Allegro con fuoco in the first movement), the tempi were ideal, but by the end of this movement I was convinced TT was late for his flight back to San Francisco. This lunging towards the final euphonic bell-ringing of the symphony’s coda totally ruined the darkness-to-light effect of the three preceding nocturnal movements: the Scherzo was far too quick, leaving the polyphony an indecipherable mess; and the second Nachtmusik’s charm was compromised by a refusal to let the dawn mood unfold. This ‘Cinderella’ of Mahler’s canon requires extra care if it is to provide a convincing symphonic argument. It left audiences at its première baffled, and I fear this bafflement will persist after last night’s unbalanced performance. Despite committed (but faulty) playing from the SFSO, Tilson Thomas did not present the Seventh as Mahler’s pioneering Tour de Force, but rather as a mechanical run-through for the cameras. And I hope there are listeners who share my dissatisfaction with the brass layout last night – Mahler’s orchestration does not favour horns being placed in front of trumpets!

Brian Ash
Probably a perfect technical performance. But tepid, lack lustre and passionless playing of Mahler

Robert Swinhoe
What a disappointment this Prom was! It was a very disjointed and strangely muted performance from MTT & SFSO. The first movement in particular was very uneven and the brass section were having a torrid time. There were times you wondered if conductor and orchestra were on the same page! It seemed to be almost with some relief on the part of the players that they reached the end of the movement. The scherzo was played well, but throughout the strings and particulary the cellos and basses were very muted, without the customary SFSO resonance which is very marked on their studio Mahler 7. The finish, as it should be, was rousing indeed but the memory of that very tepid and uneven start will be the lasting impression.