Time does fly. Michael Tilson Thomas is celebrating his 50th (!) anniversary with the London Symphony Orchestra, and he’s doing it in grand style, by conducting Berlioz’s Roméo and Juliet. This symphonie dramatique was influenced by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and in turn influenced Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. “The work is enormously difficult to perform,” Berlioz wrote in his memoir. “To be well done, it needs first-rate performers—players, singers, conductor.” —L.J.