Violinist Taps the Baton and the Bow : Conducting Helps Playing, Says Zukerman, Who Has Recital in Costa Mesa Today

Violinist Pinchas Zukerman belongs to that small circle of instrumental virtuosos who have surrendered to the lure of the conductor’s podium. Far from distancing him from his commitment to the violin (and viola), he is eager to testify that conducting has improved his playing.

“What conducting develops is peripheral hearing, which is like peripheral vision,” Zukerman, 44, explained in a recent phone interview. “It allows me to hear in a score a lot more of what’s really happening.”

Conducting has also given him insight into the psychology of music-making.

“When you conduct, a kind of subjectivity overtakes you. It takes the self out of the body in a way that can analyze the sounds being made. But when you play, you cannot take the self away from the instrument.”

Zukerman the violinist will perform tonight at 8 p.m. in Costa Mesa, under the auspices of the Orange County Philharmonic Society. With pianist Marc Neikrug, he will play sonatas by Mozart, Bartok and Faure, as well as a Schubert Sonatina. (They will also play a program of Beethoven sonatas on Sunday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.)

Zukerman made his mark early. As a young violin student in his native Israel, he benefited from the encouragement of Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals. At 19, he launched his solo career by winning the Leventritt International Competition.

In 1970, he began conducting the English Chamber Orchestra, and from 1980-87 he was music director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. More recently, Zukerman has been associated with the Dallas Symphony--he will sport the title of principal guest conductor come June--where he conducts two weeks in the winter season and directs the orchestra’s summer music festival.

But no matter how demanding his conducting schedule, Zukerman does not neglect his instruments.

“Even when I was in St. Paul, I never let conducting duties infringe on my playing. As arduous and difficult as things may have been, I never reduced my practicing. Of course, some people need to practice 17 hours a day, but I don’t. I can get by doing one to two hours of scales and exercises to keep my technique up.”

Performers can’t rely on technique alone to keep pace with the load placed on them by today’s global music industry, he says.

“In (Nathan) Milstein’s day, the virtuoso didn’t have to play 12 concertos a year. He could do four. And he traveled for only six months of the year, because that was all the places there were to play. People like Midori, (Itzhak) Perlman and myself walk around with 25 concertos in our repertory. It’s crazy.”

Although Zukerman sees relief coming, he warned that the agent of change will be the harsh economic realities most performing-arts organizations currently face.

“Maybe we don’t need music 52 weeks a year,” he speculated.

He noted that high-tech communications may free virtuosos from the need for incessant travel.

“I remember talking to Artur Rubinstein after he played on TV for the first time. He was amazed that he had played for 5 million people. Today we can play for 25 million, and in the near future, fiber-optic communications will allow us to play before 75 million.”

In contrast to the superstars who see their accompanists as interchangeable accessories, Zukerman’s 16-year performing partnership with pianist and composer Neikrug stands out. For starters, Zukerman rankled at even labeling Neikrug as an accompanist.

“I’ve never considered the piano an accompanying instrument. It’s just that society looks at it that way. When Mozart played the piano part in one of his violin sonatas, I’m sure he didn’t consider himself an accompanist. After all, he wrote those sonatas for piano and violin, not for violin and piano.”

As a composer, Neikrug has been Zukerman’s mentor.

“I have learned a tremendous amount from him,” Zukerman said. “He has brought me in touch with many composers I would never have known, especially when he was composer in residence for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.”

Zukerman has frequently performed Neikrug’s Violin Concerto, and the composer is working on a string quintet for Zukerman to play with the Tokyo Quartet.

“It’s unusual for two people to perform together for so long and still remain friends.”

Violinist Pinchas Zukerman and pianist Marc Neikrug perform tonight at 8 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $7 to $30. (714) 556-2787.