Reminder: Don't miss Valery Gergiev

He's in enormous demand around the world, and from all accounts, he doesn't sleep. Valery Gergiev is making one of his TWO stops with American orchestras this season in Cincinnati, 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Music Hall. (If you don't have a ticket yet, better get one soon -- this fiery Russian invariably sells out concert halls.) His performances can be both electrifying and controversial -- he doesn't charm or convince every critic. But his Shostakovich cycle last year was on the Top 10 of just about every critic in the world. And the only reason he's coming here is because he's FOP (Friend of Paavo).

Gergiev is leading the Cincinnati Symphony in Stravinsky's "Petrouchka" and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.

Here's what he told BBC Music about conducting an orchestra, upon his appointment as music director of the London Symphony: "...It's mainly an exchange of artistic ideas. Also I have no intention of breaking any orchestra's intrinsic character. If you come to a Russian orchestra, or an American, or a British, or an Austrian orchestra, you don't have to make them all sound the same..."

You can bet the CSO won't sound the same... Tix: 513-381-3300, www.cincinnatisymphony.org