BEST BETS / Thursday 1/25

all day

Art

An exhibition of landscapes both real and imagined will remind viewers of the human need to escape to nature in “Drawing the Landscape: 1500-1800,” which opened earlier this week at the Getty Center. The exhibition will feature selections from the Renaissance to the Romantic era, including Titian’s “Pastoral Scene” and Rembrandt’s “Landscape with the House with the Little Tower.”

* “Drawing the Landscape: 1500-1800,” the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood. Parking reservations required except weekdays from 4 to 9 p.m. and all day Sat. and Sun.; college students need no reservations. Museum hours: Tuesday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Thursday-Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Ends April 15. Free. Parking, $5. (310) 440-7300.

8pm

Music

Hailed as a daring and breathtaking individual, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will make her Pacific Symphony debut playing Max Bruch’s beloved Concerto No. 1 under the direction of Carl St.Clair. Salerno-Sonnenberg was one of three women awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1999 and the subject of Paolo di Florio’s documentary, “Speaking in Strings,” which was nominated last year for an Academy Award. St.Clair also will conduct Tobias Picker’s “Old and Lost Rivers” and Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor.

* Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg with the Pacific Symphony, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, 8 p.m. $19 to $52. (714) 556-2787.

8pm

Theater

Britain’s cutting-edge Improbable Theatre, creator of last year’s surrealistic “Shockheaded Peter,” returns to the Southland in the West Coast premiere of its latest show, “Spirit.” Using the group’s signature blend of improv, puppetry, dark comedy and vivid imagery, the play is about three brothers whose dream to fly takes an ironic turn when they go to war.

* “Spirit,” UCLA, Freud Playhouse. Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m. Also Saturday, 2 p.m. $30. (310) 825-2101.

8pm

Theater

In the West Coast premiere of Warren Leight’s new play, “Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine,” twin brothers--and former big band jazz musicians who have been estranged for 40 years--journey toward reconciliation. Leight won a Tony Award for his last play, “Side Man.”

* “Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine,” the Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Also, Feb. 28, 2:30 p.m. No evening show on March 4. $30 to $44. (213) 628-2772.

8pm

Pop Music

David Eugene Davis is the grandson of a traveling minister, and the music he makes with his band 16 Horsepower is steeped with a spiritual yearning and a gothic darkness that reflects his Southern heritage. The acclaimed, Denver-based band returns to Vynyl, where last fall it played its postmodern blues with compelling directness.

* 16 Horsepower, at Vynyl, 1650 Schrader Blvd., L.A., 8 p.m. $15. (323) 465-7449.

Freebie

The Simon Wiesenthal Center screens “From Swastika to Jim Crow,” a documentary about European Jewish intellectuals who immigrated to America and found work teaching at traditionally black colleges in the then-segregated South and the impact they had on the Civil Rights movement. A discussion with the filmmakers follows. Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., 7 p.m. Reservations required. (310) 553-8403, Ext. 2806.