Russian conductor Valery Gergiev will take the reins of the London Symphony Orchestra next January, and anticipation is building in Britain’s capital city. But what does Gergiev plan to do with his new toy? Well, for one thing, he plans to explore some of the Russian music that has fallen out of fashion since the collapse of the Soviet Union. But more importantly, he won’t “pretend to take the orchestra to other planets” and would hope “never to block a truly artistic statement” from any musician. Gergiev seems particularly sensitive to the burnout that some music directors face with the world’s great orchestras as a result of fundraising and gladhanding duties, and stresses that he wants his relationship with the LSO to be “purely musical.”