Mr. Jarvi's professional career has included stints as principal guest conductor with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony in England.

Not only is Sir Simon youthful and gifted; in England, where he put the City of Birmingham Symphony on the map, he vitalized an entire cultural community.

Simon Rattle's with the City of Birmingham Symphony perhaps best conveys a sense of impish fun in the music that is often missed.

During the course of the conversation he learned that the Birmingham Symphony hails not from Birmingham, Ala., but Birmingham, England.

The list could go on: Simon Rattle, concentrates on the City of Birmingham Symphony when he could gad about the globe.

The work was commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony, who premiered it under Andrzej Panufnik in February 1959.

The sorrow and the barely veiled rage swell through a reading by Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony (EMI 5 55476 2).

Mr. Gaston was approached in the 1960's by a prominent white businessman seeking money for the Birmingham Symphony.

In just a few days now, Simon Rattle will come to the end of his 18-year tenure as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony.

Mr. Jarvi, the 36-year-old principal guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony, was following in his father's footsteps.