Former San Francisco Symphony Music Director Herbert Blomstedt, now Conductor Laureate, returns to Davies Hall annually for a two-week visit. As with many traditions, welcoming him back can sometimes take us unawares. Has it really been a year already?

Not that we are sorry to see him again – for an uninterrupted 10-year span, Blomstedt was the face of the SFS, and we happily supported his leadership. I always enjoyed calling him maestro. His tenure was regularly hailed as "orchestra building," filled with "solid conservative musicianship" and generally considered just what the doctor ordered to get the organization back on the international map. Blomstedt achieved his goals and even won some Grammys along the way. His Beethoven still resonates in memory for the extraordinary freshness and precision he provoked, and his dedication to the thrilling symphonies of Jean Sibelius and Danish composer Carl Nielsen also earned some important awards and respect.

There was attention to detail and control evident in every Blomstedt performance, and nowhere were the rewards greater than in the many awe-inspiring concerts devoted to the mammoth symphonies of Anton Bruckner. Blomstedt's serious (but not unsmiling) approach to the vast, problematic, occasionally ponderous scores proved revelatory at the time, and he has retained a worldwide reputation as the go-to guy for much of the Bruckner repertoire.

Tastes change, however, and it has been a decade and a half since Michael Tilson Thomas took the podium at Davies. He hasn't erased Blomstedt's legacy, nor has he tried to. If anything, MTT has taken the ball and run with the team to even greater glory. Where Blomstedt personifies all that is valuable about classical musicianship and training (read: old-fashioned in the best sense), MTT shares the same solid foundation, but adds a thoroughly contemporary attitude of showmanship and excitement. It is not that Blomstedt is or ever was boring. He still takes center stage with an astonishing presence and vitality, and he remains virtually unchanged physically. Can he really be 83? Wisely, the ramrod-straight Swede (originally by way of Springfield, Mass.) decided to play to his considerable strengths in his recent fortnight of concerts.

Week 1 brought some surprisingly measured and rich-sounding Haydn, framing the SFS debut of cellist Joshua Roman. Roman made a splash with his technical proficiency, and I admired his choice of music to introduce himself. He could have gone big-league with Dvorak or Elgar, so I found it appealing that he decided on the arguably less impressive but still wonderfully droll and entertaining Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1. Roman is currently making a name for himself touring nationally, but he got his start at age 22 in the Pacific Northwest as principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony. He certainly displays superior talent, but I was a little confused by his interpretation. A slightly heavy-handed approach seemed counter to Haydn's invention.

Roman's performance became more of a pleasing curtain-raiser in the context of Blomstedt's post-intermission traversal of Beethoven's Symphony No 3 in E-flat Major, Eroica. All those memories of earlier evenings spent with Blomstedt and Beethoven returned with a warm nostalgia, but wait – the moments that once soared with an intense exaltation have now become earthbound. They are still beautiful and exquisitely performed, but nowhere near as inspiring.

Could it be that I like MTT's Beethoven better these days? Well, worse things have happened, so I approached last week's visit with the old maestro and his presentation of the Bruckner Sixth with a welter of conflicting expectations. Would MTT's kinetic and invigorating take on the Sixth supplant Blomstedt's remembered characteristically architectural vision? The short answer is yes, at least with this particular symphony, arguably the least loved (but ironically unrevised) of Bruckner's essays in the genre. More pulse, rhythm and brevity of statement are obvious in the Sixth than in many of the other works, and so it seems, not too surprisingly, to be more up MTT's alley than Blomstedt's.

The evening started with some sweet-toned and rich Mozart, the Symphony No. 36 in C Major, Linz. Blomstedt was never famous for his Mozart, and in that respect, neither is MTT, so there can be no real comparisons between them. I did appreciate the added edge and energy Blomstedt gave to the lovely score. I only wish he had hearkened back to that same sense of precision in the following Bruckner Sixth.

The orchestra, especially the brass, played with tremendous weight and brilliance. Dividing the strings right and left was also a good idea, adding richness and clarity. In fact, the performance had all of the trademark Blomstedt characteristics, lacking only in a much-needed sense of logical flow. The conductor who taught us all about Brucknerian thinking in the first place was a little tripped up by one of the composer's less profoundly spiritual statements. That isn't to say it wasn't a good performance, it just wasn't a great one, as we were once accustomed to from Blomstedt. Maybe next year, he will return with some Sibelius or Nielsen (please, please, the Third Symphony) and a bigger, weightier Bruckner. Whatever he decides on, I will still be there for a big shout-out to the old lion.