Maestro

Yuri Temirkanov may not have clocked the most on-the-job-site hours of any music director in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's history, but he has certainly put his time with the orchestra to great use. His relatively brief tenure (shortened by occasional concert-canceling illnesses) has been characterized by consistent upgrading of the ensemble's technical, artistic and, some would say, even spiritual quality. The Temirkanov style, which emphasizes tonal warmth and uninhibited expressiveness, seemed more savory than ever Thursday night at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where the conductor launched his seventh and final season at the BSO helm.

What occasion could be more genteel, less prone to outbursts of any kind, than an evening of classical music? Aren't restraint and dispassion in the air whenever our musical aristocrats partake of their rarefied, supremely dignified art form? Don't you believe it. There will outbursts aplenty when the Annapolis Symphony opens its 45th season this evening at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts under the baton of its new conductor, Jose-Luis Novo, who begins his first season at the orchestra's helm.

The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra closed its 2004-2005 season with someone new and something old. On the new side Friday night at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts was Jose-Luis Novo, making his first appearance with the ensemble since being named music director. The announcement of his hiring came in March (his official start date is July 1), after a two-year search. Thus closes a curious chapter in the ASO's history that saw the unexpected end of Leslie B. Dunner's critically and publicly successful tenure in 2003.

Internally, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra does not present an entirely cohesive image these days, with an unproven executive freshly installed and a rash of departures on the staff, including some of its most devoted and valuable members. Financially, the orchestra doesn't look entirely steady, either, given worrisome debts that could hit a new high next year. Artistically, though, the BSO couldn't sound much more unified or solid. What the audience found Saturday night at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall was an ensemble operating at the top of its game, led by a music director at the top of his. For the season's final classical subscription program, Yuri Temirkanov focused on two strong personalities who knew how to shake up expectations, extract fresh instrumental colors and, in the best possible sense, just show off -- Hector Berlioz and Dmitri Shostakovich.

The intrigue will continue apace at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts on March 26 and 27 when the Annapolis Symphony reconvenes its search for a conductor to replace Leslie B. Dunner. This time around, the visiting maestro will be Emil de Cou, the associate conductor of Leonard Slatkin's National Symphony Orchestra, who will conduct a varied program of Samuel Barber's Second Essay for Orchestra, Robert Schumann Piano Concerto and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. A Los Angeles native, de Cou began his professional career on the other side of the baton, as principal French horn of Germany's Baden State Theatre and of Austria's Mozart Opera of Salzburg.

The Johns Hopkins University has launched a national search for a new director of its office that licenses the discoveries of its scientists, a move that comes as the university seeks to more aggressively court relationships with companies that can turn those discoveries into products. William P. Tew, 58, who had headed the university's Office of Licensing and Technology Development since January 2003, said yesterday that his departure was a mutual decision. "I'm a builder of things, not a runner of things," Tew said as he took a break from building an experimental aircraft.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Yuri Temirkanov, still recovering from flu, has canceled another round of appearances with the ensemble. The conductor, who canceled programs last week and this week, will not be on the podium at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall for performances featuring pianist Lang Lang Jan. 22-25. "We are proceeding on the assumption that he will also not be here for the program Jan. 29-31 with violinist Gidon Kremer," BSO vice president of public relations Gregory Tucker said yesterday, "although that could change.

Flexibility in matters of phrasing, tempo and stylistic nuance is a hallmark of orchestral conducting at its finest. The Annapolis Symphony has decided that flexibility will be a key component in its search for a conductor to replace Leslie B. Dunner, the charismatic music director whose five years with the ASO ended last season with a decision by the orchestra's board of trustees not to renew his contract. Dunner and his predecessor, the Uruguayan-born Gisele Ben-Dor, were products of a cut-and-dried selection process.

Workers remodeling a 19th-century rehearsal hall at the Peabody Institute have found 10 dusty jugs of moonshine in an unlocked closet, where they apparently sat for nearly 60 years. Faded labels on the bottles suggest that the hooch was the handiwork of Gustav Strube, the first conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Strube, who came to Baltimore in 1913 and lived here until his death 40 years later at age 85, was one of Baltimore's most beloved characters. A composer, conductor, violinist and music professor known as "Papa Strube" to his students, he was locally renowned for his succulent goulash and his home-brewed beer, wine and liquor.

Sergiu Comissiona, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's conductor laureate, is back in town this weekend to open a concert series he founded in a concert hall he helped get built. He received quite a welcome last night from the ensemble, which played splendidly - would lovingly be too strong a word? - and presented him with a 75-flower bouquet, in honor of his recent 75th birthday. There was a hearty Happy Birthday serenade from the orchestra and audience, too, although a better tribute would have been a full house; you could have bowled in just about any direction at Meyerhoff Hall and bruised hardly a soul.