Alexander Treger Enjoys Solos, Too

About to begin his 15th season as a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the same month he has already turned 40, Alexander Treger says he is unfazed by these two important anniversaries.

“I don’t think about it,” says the emigre violinist, who joined the Philharmonic in 1974 after leaving the Soviet Union and spending some time as a member of the Israel Chamber Orchestra. “The old don’t like to get older, but I have no complaints. After all, these years I’ve been with the Philharmonic have given me so much in my development as a musician. Besides, inside I still feel like a young kid.”

This week at Hollywood Bowl, Treger, whose title in the orchestra is concertmaster--making him No. 2 to principal concertmaster Sidney Weiss--again steps into the solo spotlight. Friday and Saturday nights, at the two performances closing the 1988 summer season, Treger will play Wieniawski’s Second Violin Concerto on the pops program to be led by Philharmonic assistant conductor David Alan Miller, a program also promising a “Carmen” Suite, Kodaly’s “Dances From Galanta” and Handel’s “Royal Fireworks” Music.

As he has said before, Treger considers his solo appearances with the orchestra “not a matter of changing gears, but just something different that I do. Like a chamber music concert, or a short solo in an orchestral piece. Of course, one can get nervous about it. But it’s all still playing the violin.”

Nor does the violinist follow any special routine--like taking time off before the solo appearance--before playing a concerto with his own orchestra.

“For me, the best thing is to keep doing what I do. I’ve found that, physically and psychologically, I’m better off playing every day. Not to make a big production out of it.”

Treger says he has been lucky in the pieces chosen to show him off. In February, 1987, he appeared as soloist in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto, a work he had originally studied while a student of David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory two decades ago. This coming December, with Simon Rattle on the podium, Treger will be the protagonist of the similarly daunting Violin Concerto by Jean Sibelius.

The Wieniawski work he plays this week, says Treger, is completely different from the other two concertos.

“By no means is it easier--but it is lighter. It’s a full-fledged Romantic piece, one of those Romantic pieces that will never go out of style--like the Mendelssohn or the Bruch. Of course it’s very difficult, but it shouldn’t sound that way. The most important thing is that it must be beautiful, from beginning to end.”

At the second performance of this program, Saturday night, the entire proceedings will be telecast live on KCOP-Channel 13, with stereo simulcast on KUSC-FM (91.5). KCOP broadcast the same season-closing concert at the end of the 1987 Bowl series. Announcing the event will be Alex Trebek and Gail Eichenthal.

This final week offers the L.A. Philharmonic in two programs previewing its upcoming tour to Japan (the orchestra departs Sept. 22).

Tuesday and Thursday night, Philharmonic music director Andre Previn leads the orchestra in two agendas scheduled to be performed on that tour. Tuesday, it is Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, Debussy’s “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune” and, with the conductor as soloist, Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor, K. 491.

Thursday night the Philharmonic’s principal clarinetist, Michele Zukovsky, is the soloist when Previn leads Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloe,” Suite No. 2, and the Clarinet Concerto by Aaron Copland.

CONTRACT SETTLEMENTS: The San Francisco Opera and the American Guild of Musical Artists, representing the Opera Chorus, have agreed to a two-year contract, ending the prospect of a disrupted season, which began Friday with Meyerbeer’s “L’Africaine.” The contract, retroactive to January, provides the singers with wage increases of 5% this year and 6% in 1989.

The Houston Symphony--entering its 75th season with a new music director, Christoph Eschenbach--and its musicians, represented by Local 65 of the American Federation of Musicians, have reached an agreement on a three-year contract. The new contract affects working conditions and auditioning, as well as providing increases in benefits and salary. The weekly minimum wage for the musicians will rise to $860 by the end of 1990.

SILENT ORCHESTRAS: The Nashville Symphony board of directors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The musicians have formed their own organization, the Nashville Symphony Players’ Assn., which has performed a number of fund-raising concerts. . . . After a season-long strike, begun last year by the musicians of the Oklahoma Symphony, the directors of that orchestra have suspended operations and voted to dissolve their corporation no later than Oct. 31.

CONCERTS: The fourth season of Yoko Matsuda’s and Daniel Shulman’s Ima Concerts have begun this weekend with private-home concerts in Northridge, West Los Angeles, Palos Verdes and Anaheim. The series at Pomona College and the Civic Theatre in Hermosa Beach begins next Sunday and Sept. 19. For a full schedule of Ima activities, call (805) 255-6229. . . . The Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra left Saturday on a tour to Mexico City and Acapulco, sponsored by the Pan American Youth Symphony League and the Mexican government. . . . Pianist Michael Carson launches the Pi Kappa Lambda Faculty Recital series at Cal State Long Beach Tuesday night. Series income will support scholarships to be awarded to high school seniors. Information: (213) 985-5526. . . . The Chamber Music Series at Whittier College begins Wednesday with a concert by the Verdehr Trio. Information: (213) 693-0771, ext. 319. . . . The Sonic series of contemporary/experimental music at LACE opens with New York improviser Tom Cora and Dinosaurs With Horns Thursday, followed by drummer John Bergamo and violinist Malcolm Goldstein on Friday. Information: (213) 624-5650. . . . Supported by a $15,000 grant from the Pacific Telesis Foundation, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will present a free community concert at San Fernando High School Sept. 25.

PEOPLE: Trumpeter Michael Sachs, formerly a member of the Houston Symphony and a member of the faculty at the Shepard School of Music at Rice University, has been appointed principal trumpet of the Cleveland Orchestra, effective in September, and has also joined the faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music.