Maestro

The verdict is in. Yuri Temirkanov whacked it out of the park last Thursday -- and out of the county last night. Out-of-town critics, this one included, agreed wholeheartedly with the Baltimoreans who gave the Russian conductor a 12-minute standing ovation at the end of his inaugural concert as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony brought out the best in leader and players alike. Still, one concert does not a honeymoon make, and Temirkanov had something to prove.

Some musicians divide conductors into those they describe as "time-beaters," and those they do not. It isn't difficult to decipher what they mean: There are conductors (among them some truly great ones) who use their hands to articulate rhythm precisely. And there are orchestral leaders who use their hands not to mark time, but to mold the music. Yuri Temirkanov, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's new artistic director, falls into the second category. The silver-haired conductor stepped yesterday onto the podium in Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- Breeders' Cup week is a symphony of the most talented, most beautiful and most valuable racehorses in the world. The music soars each time a grand thoroughbred such as Daylami, Forestry or Lemon Drop Kid prances to and from the track.Yet with all these equine stars and all their accomplished human connections, the clear leader of the symphony this week at Gulfstream Park is the once-obscure, now-ubiquitous trainer, Bob Baffert. Everywhere he goes there's a TV crew, a group of reporters, a visitor with a camera, all hoping to bask in the beam of his wit and charm.

Five and a half feet tall and never weighing more than 110 pounds, Frederic Chopin looked delicate, almost transparent, and not quite of this world.Novelist George Sand, whose 10-year love affair with him has become the stuff of legend, called him her "little one." His friend, composer Felix Mendelssohn, not exactly a heavyweight himself, dubbed him "Chopinetto."He was always suffering from something. "Chopin has been dying his whole life long," said one malicious Parisian lady, and another: "He has the most charming cough."

The Naval Academy Department of Music has announced details of the Vice Admiral Eliot and Miriam Bryant Distinguished Artists Series for the 1999-2000 season.On Oct. 7, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will travel to the academy's Alumni Hall under the direction of Miguel Harth-Bedoya, the Peruvian conductor of the Eugene Symphony in Oregon.Annapolitans will remember Harth-Bedoya as the young maestro who made a strong impression in March 1998, conducting the Annapolis Symphony in works by Ginastera, Prokofieff and Schumann as part of the local orchestra's conductor search.

IN many fields, growing old means cutting back on your professional responsibilities. But for orchestra conductors, figures of mythic virility and longevity, advancing age seems only to entail taking on more obligations.Consider Kurt Masur, the 71-year-old music director of the New York Philharmonic. Last week, it was announced that, beginning in 2000, Mr. Masur would become the principal conductor of the London Philharmonic. In London, The Guardian reported that the German maestro would, naturally, be resigning his New York position, which pays him $1.3 million a year.

Two seasons ago, a young American named Alan Gilbert stepped onto the Baltimore Symphony podium as a last-minute substitution for an indisposed guest conductor.Gilbert gave a distinguished account of his abilities on that occasion, and he has returned to the Meyerhoff Hall - this time as the scheduled guest conductor.His program includes Beethoven's ever-popular Fifth Symphony and two of the composer's less familiar works, the Mass in C major and the Choral Fantasy for piano, orchestra and chorus.

They hired the right guy.That message came through loud and clear at Maryland Hall Friday when Leslie Dunner conducted his first subscription concert since his appointment in the spring as director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra.Dunner conducted a pair of Brahms' firsts, the Symphony No. 1 in C minor and the sprawling Piano Concerto in D minor, the composer's first work in that genre.The soloist was Peter Orth, a highly respected American who has collaborated with such conductors as Blomstedt, Slatkin, Dutoit and Mehta.

In the fast-paced world of classical music, conducting engagements are booked years in advance. So when you hire your new conductor in late March, you don't figure him to be available for concerts in May.That explains why Leslie Dunner, the Annapolis Symphony's newly hired maestro, will not be on the podium when the orchestra takes the Maryland Hall stage tomorrow and Saturday nights for the season's final pair of subscription concerts.That honor will fall to Joel Revzen, once the conductor of Virginia's Prince William Symphony and now artistic director of the Berkshire Opera Company of western Massachusetts and principal conductor of the Fargo/Moorhead Symphony of North Dakota.

A story about Herbert von Karajan, when the German maestro was simultaneously music director of orchestras in London, Berlin, Paris and Vienna, has him hailing a cab in front of Carnegie Hall."