Yuri Temirkanov

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is serving up a filling meat-and-potatoes meal this week - two repertoire staples by Beethoven and Brahms. Although a little spice on the menu would be nice (both pieces are even in the same key, D major), there's nothing stale in the presentation. The first performance on Thursday evening at Meyerhoff Hall found Yuri Temirkanov delivering his distinctive brand of rapt music-making - no note taken for granted, a deeply expressive character throughout. Where other conductors might be inclined to differentiate between the two composers on the program, Temirkanov treated them as basically cut from the same, rich, romantic cloth.

Yuri Temirkanov to conduct at the MeyerhoffYuri Temirkanov is one of the world's hottest conductors, and Baltimore music lovers have been waiting years to hear him. Thursday and Friday (at 8:15 p.m.) and Saturday (at 11 a.m.) he finally arrives at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Temirkanov, the music director of his country's greatest orchestra (formerly the Leningrad, now the St. Petersburg Philharmonic) will conduct a program that consists of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5. These are warhorses -- tired in most performances -- that almost every listener knows, but Temirkanov is likely to ride a winning race in each piece.

Mission: To make music of the highest quality, to enhance Baltimore and Maryland as a cultural center of interest, vitality and importance, and to enter the 21st century as a model of institutional strength.Accomplishments: The BSO is celebrating its 83rd season -- a year that has presented the great masterpieces of Beethoven. In addition to a critically acclaimed performance at Carnegie Hall, the 1998-1999 season featured more than 150 concerts ranging from classical to pops and educational to family.

No laughing, please. Like the pop quiz, algebra and climbing the rope in gym class, the school photograph is one of those predictable obstacles to a happy childhood. Just as leaves begin to change colors, many a child's cheek turns scarlet when the photographer shows up at school. Should I smile? Show teeth? Look serious? Comb my hair? Open my eyes? Lose my glasses? Hide that blemish? Some of Baltimore's most well-known celebrities were asked (well, persuaded, begged, threatened) to dig through their attics and produce a school photo.

COMING UP Antiques and Annapolis are together again in the Historic Annapolis Antiques show this weekend. The event runs tomorrow through Sunday at the E. Leslie Medford Armory. Wares include maps and prints, rugs, linens and laces, scientific instruments, porcelain and illustrated books. Tickets for the show, which runs 11 a.m.-6 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday, are $8 and can be purchased at the door. The Medford National Guard Armory is on Hudson Street in Annapolis.

Yuri Temirkanov, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, will not be on the podium this week as scheduled "so that he may undergo a routine medical procedure," according to a statement released by orchestra management over the weekend. Temirkanov is expected to resume his BSO schedule next week, rehearsing and conducting a program devoted to Sergei Prokofiev's score for the classic Sergei Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky, performed in synch with the film. Last week, Temirkanov completed a month-long tour with his other orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, which began in Asia and concluded in Berlin.

Yuri Temirkanov has canceled the first two of four weeks of concerts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra next month. Now in his final season as BSO music director, the Russian conductor last appeared with the orchestra in October. Temirkanov canceled several concerts during the past few years due to illness. This cancellation is due to the unexpected death last week in St. Petersburg of a friend, composer Andrei Petrov, best known for writing the scores to more than 70 Russian films.

IT HAS been fascinating to read the many viewpoints expressed over the last few weeks in The Sun concerning the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's programming. We welcome the exchange of ideas and believe that this debate can help to bring about an even richer programming mix. When we plan the BSO season, we are inspired above all by the artistic vision of our music director, Yuri Temirkanov, the ideas of our guest conductors, the artistic aspirations of our musicians and the diverse tastes of our audience.

EACH of its past two music directors, Sergiu Comissiona and David Zinman, raised the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to the next level. No less is expected of Yuri Temirkanov, who has just conducted his first series of concerts here since he was named to the job.Audience expectation was high, and met. One sign of something special, for those with eagle eyes, was the distinguished soloist for the Barber violin concerto, Pamela Frank. After intermission, she sneaked into the last row of second violins to play the Beethoven Seventh Symphony.