Conductor Enjoys the Tours : * Classical music: Jesus Lopez-Cobos leads the Cincinnati Symphony in Costa Mesa tonight, part of its first West Coast swing.

The reasons orchestras tour may be as various as the ensembles themselves, but Jesus Lopez-Cobos didn’t hesitate when asked why his Cincinnati Symphony hits the road:

“It’s very important--especially for our orchestra, which is the only one in town--to go out where there are other orchestras, to hear and be heard in other places. And for the musicians, trying to do their best every night over an intensive trip can be very positive.”

The conductor was speaking from his hotel in New York, where the Cincinnati Symphony’s current tour began with performances Sunday at Long Island University and Monday at Carnegie Hall. Next stop is Costa Mesa tonight, to be followed in daily succession by Palm Desert, Santa Barbara, Pasadena and Las Vegas.

Though these are its first West Coast appearances, the orchestra has been a pillar of the Eastern musical establishment since its first concert, in 1895. It made its first recording in 1917, and can number Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ysaye, Fritz Reiner and Eugene Goosens among its 11 music directors.

The Cincinnati also is credited with being the first American orchestra to undertake a world tour, in 1967. Lopez-Cobos would like to see much more travel for all orchestras. “I think an exchange between cities would be very positive,” he asserted.

He is not naive, however, about the constraints afflicting all aspects of orchestral life right now. A tour of the Far East last year had the sponsorship of the General Electric jet engine division and the local baby Bell. This trip does not have a sponsor.

“It is very difficult to tour these days without a sponsor,” he said. “That is almost essential.” (Indeed, we already have seen Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony cancel the Western leg of their tour this season, citing the lack of such support).

The repertory that Lopez-Cobos programs for tours is not much different from what he does in subscription concerts at home. Tonight’s audience will hear Mozart’s Divertimento No. 11 and Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony.

Bruckner has been a favorite of Lopez-Cobos since the 52-year-old conductor’s student days in Vienna. Lopez-Cobos currently is embarked on a Bruckner recording project with the Cincinnati Symphony and Telarc: They already have done Symphonies Nos. 4, 6 and 7, and recorded the Ninth earlier this year, for release in July.

The West Coast does not get the special program that Lopez-Cobos and Co. brought to their old friends at Carnegie Hall: the Lutoslawski Cello Concerto, with Lynn Harrell, and the New York premiere of Tania Leon’s “Carabali” were included (along with the Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony which they are playing on some of their West Coast dates).

“It depends on where we go and the presenter,” Lopez-Cobos said, a shrug almost audible over the phone. “Often one of the wishes of the presenter is ‘Please bring something more popular.’ ”

Lopez-Cobos himself is an active and imaginative promoter of contemporary music. Indeed, the Leon work was commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony as part of an extensive series of new pieces for the orchestra’s upcoming centennial celebrations.

Earlier this year, Lopez-Cobos and the orchestra saluted a longtime patron with a new piece by Cincinnati composer Philip Coplow, in which everyone in the audience was given small hand chimes which then were involved in the performance.

The conductor also initiated a biennial competition for young composers. Entries are narrowed to three finalists, which are played for the public. The audience votes to determine the ultimate winner. “That makes it a community piece,” Lopez-Cobos said. “It’s very exciting when we involve everyone in the process.”

The Cincinnati Symphony is well known under its other name--the Cincinnati Pops--through its numerous recordings with Erich Kunzel. The orchestra also doubles as the pit band for the Cincinnati Opera.

Lopez-Cobos conducted the Deutsche Oper in Berlin for 19 years, the last nine as music director. But he says he was not sorry to leave Berlin in 1990. Nor, he said, was he unduly dismayed last year when the “Rosenkavalier” he was to lead for the Los Angeles Music Center Opera was canceled.

“I was not so anxious to do opera,” he explained. “I was a little tired, particularly with the German repertory system.”

Instead, he is concentrating on orchestral work. His third contract with Cincinnati will see him through 1996; he also has taken over the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland. Working with the two orchestras takes up nine months of his year. “For me, it’s perfect,” he reported.

“I felt very happy when I first came to Cincinnati. I like many things there, where there is a continuation of European traditions. And our Music Hall is wonderful acoustically.”

So how does he react to the less wonderful halls he encounters on tour? Positively, of course.

“It’s always a problem to adjust,” he conceded, “but again, that’s good for the orchestra.”

Given the importance Lopez-Cobos places on facing challenges, and on taking the measure of his orchestra by other than hometown standards, one might imagine him seeing the orchestral game as a competitive--or at least comparative--one. But he says he is very ambivalent about the qualitative rankings implied in the notorious “Big Five” concept.

“That’s probably out-of-date. I think this country has 15 to 20 ‘big’ orchestras. Maybe some days number six plays better than number three, who knows? It is not a horse race.”

* Jesus Lopez-Cobos conducts the Cincinnati Symphony in Mozart’s Divertimento No. 11 in D, K.251 and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor tonight at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Curtain: 8:00. Tickets: $12 to $31. Presented by the Orange County Philharmonic Society. Information: (714) 646-6277.