IT CAN TAKE SEASONS FOR AN ORchestra to reflect the skills and tastes of a new conductor. Older players have to retire, and new section principals be appointed; in rehearsal, players must learn to deliver, say, a richer string sound or a brassier brass. That's why what is going on in San Francisco is creating such a buzz in the classical-music world. It has been just six months since Michael Tilson Thomas inherited the baton from the sober Swede Herbert Blomstedt, but already the San Francisco Symphony has undergone a transformation. Woodwinds dance merrily, the brass resonates nobly, and the strings...
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