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“I told Kara let’s go out swinging … win or lose I’m going to be aggressive,” said the teary-eyed Jones, who is headed to San Diego State to play indoor volleyball.

Davies Symphony Hall, where Tilson Thomas presided over the San Francisco Symphony for an influential quarter century, was festooned with giant blue balloons.

But in February he learned that the tumor had returned, and the conductor declared last Saturday night’s San Francisco Symphony gala, billed as an 80th tribute to this native Angeleno, would be his last public appearance.

A song from Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Town” — including the line “Where has the time all gone to?” — followed as an encore, sung by guest singers and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, just before balloons joyfully fell from above.

The San Francisco concert could touch on little of this, but it did reveal something of what makes MTT tick.