Yuri Temirkanov

Some of the greatest names in classical music are lining up behind Baltimore Symphony music director-designate Yuri Temirkanov to raise money for the hundreds of children who have been orphaned by the bloodshed in Kosovo."

A year ago today, Yuri Temirkanov gave his first concert as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. This week, the wisdom of that appointment couldn't have been more clear. On Thursday evening at Meyerhoff Hall, the Temirkanov touch came through magically right at the delicate start of Weber's "Oberon" Overture, with superb pacing and shading to create a suspenseful, woodsy atmosphere. The responsiveness of the musicians throughout the overture spoke volumes about the way they have gotten firmly into the Temirkanov groove, which involves molding phrases with spontaneity, freedom and joy. He makes the music come from deep inside.

If there's anyone left in this town who doesn't understand why so much fuss has been made about Yuri Temirkanov, even half of this Baltimore Symphony Orchestra program will explain it. Actually, there's only half a program left to hear - this morning's "Casual Concert" includes just the Symphony No. 2 by Sibelius. But that's more than enough to reveal how much musical insight Temirkanov has to offer, and how powerfully the orchestra can respond to him. On Thursday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, when Sibelius was preceded by his Violin Concerto, the revelations started literally with the first measures.

Last year the Baltimore Symphony promised to replace outgoing music director David Zinman with the "world's greatest conductor." It's impossible to say which of the world's conductors is the greatest, but yesterday the BSO did indeed appoint a great one.The BSO's 11th music director, Yuri Temirkanov, will come here as the most spectacularly credentialed chief conductor in the orchestra's 80-year history.He is the music director of one of the world's most distinguished orchestras -- the St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad)

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.

BERLIN - The shout of "Wunderbar!" coming from the balcony of the Berlin Philharmonie after the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's encore last night said it all. There was, indeed, something wonderful about the concert. The musicians can head on to Vienna today for an equally high-profile appearance feeling confident, even proud. They played the heck out of Beethoven in Berlin. Backstage afterward, music director Yuri Temirkanov looked more pleased than he has at any time during the tour.

In light of last week, many things seem less important now. That's how I view the extraordinary news that David Zinman has decided to relinquish his title of music director emeritus of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, voicing displeasure with the priorities of his successor on the podium, Yuri Temirkanov. Understandably, folks at the BSO don't want to talk much about this strange development. It struck without apparent warning and without much sense. But, in the grand scheme of things, Zinman's action is not really so damaging to the orchestra.

When Alexander Toradze arrived in town last week to perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, he had more on his mind than playing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. He was also thinking about two occasions when Yuri Temirkanov came to his rescue. "I want people here to know what kind of man Yuri is," the pianist said in his dressing room after a rehearsal. "They may see him only as a great conductor." Temirkanov, a fellow Russian, is the BSO's new music director. The two men have known each other for many years and have developed a strong, mutual respect.

Celebration is the word that best describes the upcoming music season.For starters, the 1999-2000 season marks the beginning of Yuri Temirkanov's first season as the new music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.Oops. Make that the great Russian conductor's first half-season. Temirkanov doesn't make his official debut as the BSO's new music director until January 20 and 21, when he leads the orchestra in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection"). If that first program suggests a rebirth of the orchestra, subsequent programs suggest ways in which Temirkanov will lead it in new directions: fresh repertory (such as Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 -- "Babi Yar" -- the greatest work to come out of the Holocaust, June 22-24)

Yuri Temirkanov is about to do something for the first time and he's scared."Anything you don't understand, you find frightening," Temirkanov says. "When [scientists] say the universe has no limits, I can't understand that and it scares me."But what intimidates the 60-year-old Temirkanov -- who is generally considered the greatest Russian conductor of his generation and who survived more KGB threats and interrogations than he cares to remember -- is scarcely as grand as the Big Bang theory.