Energy conductor: whether it's a new production--like this month's Met Jenufa--or a warmed-over revival, Vladimir Jurowski believes in bringing everything he's got to the podium, every time.

Ordinary musicians talk in sentences. Vladimir Jurowski, who returns to the Met this month to conduct Janacek's Jenufa, talks in paragraphs.

According to British critic Andrew Clark, "Jurowski has a mind you can trust. Whatever he conducts, he seems to have a view of the music which is genuine, committed and interesting, even if you don't always agree with it. Listening to his performances, you can tell he knows why he is conducting the piece in hand. There's a seriousness of purpose about him that impresses everybody, especially fellow musicians."

My conversation with the meteoric maestro from Moscow takes place at the end of the summer. Jurowski has ...