Philadelphia Orchestra welcomes Curtis alumni guests

Two famed alumni of the Curtis Institute of Music, conductor

Robert Spano

and pianist

Peter Serkin

, are back in Philly as the

Philadelphia Orchestra

's guest artists.

Serkin will solo in Mozart's Concert-Rondo, K.382, as well as Stravinsky's virtuoso Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. Spano will also lead Stravinsky's neoclassical "Dumbarton Oaks" Chamber Concerto and the First Symphony by Rachmaninoff, a composer with a longtime relationship with this orchestra.

Spano, in his seventh season as music director of the Atlanta Symphony, wasn't even in the running 10 years ago when our orchestra was considering a new music director.

But the Ohio-born, Elkart, Ind.-raised Spano, who studied with icon Max Rudolf at Curtis, hasn't done so badly in the meantime.

He has achieved box-office success in Atlanta and made many Grammy-winning Telarc recordings, nabbed the 2008 Musical America conductor of the year. In 2009, he'll return to Seattle to conduct another monumental cycle of Wagner's "Ring."

His risk-taking programming and advocacy for many contemporary composers has spawned the so-called "Atlanta School," though only Jennifer Higdon (who studied with Spano at Bowling Green State University in Ohio) is an Atlanta native.

"The idea is to program things, which develop over time," explained Spano by telephone from Atlanta. "Since we have composers we've commissioned with regularity, they evoke a curiosity factor with the audience. They become part of the musical family, like Jennifer, who gets absolutely mobbed in the lobby.

"I start with the premise of two things about new music. First, you might not hate it. Also, it's OK if you do. Not everything is for everybody, just as different people are drawn to different paintings, done by both dead and living artists."

One composer Spano has forged a deep relationship with is Argentinian-born Osvaldo Golijov, whose enormously successful opera "Ainamadar" will be performed here next week in a combined effort by Curtis and the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

The opera has been performed widely and recorded by Spano. This production will mark the the first time Spano, soprano Dawn Upshaw and director Peter Sellars have not been involved.

Golijov considers Spano a musical brother who completely understands even the most unusual musical ideas without explanation. Before agreeing to a DG recording contract for the opera and his other works, Golijov insisted on Spano as the conductor.

Spano also has a strong tie with pianist Serkin, having worked with him in many venues.

"Peter wanted to play the Capriccio," explained Spano, "and it was an immediate yes, since he's the real giant in that work. I remember playing Stravinsky's Concerto With Winds with him years ago at Tanglewood and still consider it a highlight of my artistic life.

"The Rachmaninoff First made sense because of his history with the [Philadelphia] orchestra, and because I've tried to be a champion of his music by playing all the symphonies and piano concertos in Atlanta. It's curious that Rachmaninoff is underrated because he's so popular. But his music always connects because of its incredible sincerity."

The 1897 premiere of the First Symphony, led by an evidently drunk Alexander Glazunov, was such a disaster that it drove Rachmanin into a deep, two-year depression. He abandoned the piece behind when he left Russia in 1917, and it was not rediscovered until 1944. The Philadelphians gave it its first Western performance four years later.

Spano curtailed his guest-conducting for two years so he could study the vast score for his 2005 Seattle "Ring" cycle performances, which stretched across four long evenings.

Seattle Opera director Speight Jenkins "talked me into a world that I was missing," Spano recalled. The challenge that launched the ultimate marathon for any conductor.

"I still feel a debt to Max Rudolf," said Spano, "and feel very sentimental toward him. His mentoring was incredibly valuable, because he treated us all differently. He was insightful and very intuitive about what each individual had to offer."

Playing violin, flute and piano in school, leading to upper-level training at Curtis, made Spano an enthusiastic advocate for education. He's been deeply involved in lobbying to keep music and the arts in Atlanta public schools.

"Certainly, my family provided an environment that fostered interest in my playing in school and in band," said Spano. "But I was also so fortunate that the musical training was excellent in Elkhart, a town famous for the manufacture of musical instruments.

"In fact, [the Broadway musical] 'The Music Man' was inspired by C. G. Conn, who built America's first musical instrument manufacturing plant in Elkhart. But every public school child should have the chance to have a great musical education." *

E-mail Tom Di Nardo at dinardt@ phillynews.com.

Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Broad and Spruce streets, 2 p.m. today, 8 p.m. tomorrow, $38-$113, 215-893-1999, www.philorch.org.