Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow talks about the piece he will be playing when the Orchestra visits Asia and what his secret is for relaxation during a hectic touring schedule.

How many tours of Asia have you made during your career?

At least a dozen with the New York Philharmonic, and maybe two or three more with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I've been to Asia a lot. It's always fun to go to Japan, and I believe my family is going to be joining me there. They can't always come along, but when my 12-year-old son, Adam, is not in school, we can sometimes arrange it. I do have three other children; Laura is 29, Julie is 26, and my 19-year-old girl, Whitney, is still attending university at Carleton College.

You will be tour soloist in the Bernstein Serenade. What is your history with this concerto?

My history with that piece starts from the fact that basically I was not even aware of it until the mid-1980s, when I got a call from Nick Webster, then the Philharmonic's managing director. He said Bernstein was doing a domestic tour and would love to have me play his Serenade. It had been recorded by Isaac Stern, for whom it was written in the 1950s. I can't believe I was totally unaware of the piece to that point. I heard a recording of it; it was just superb and I remember Lenny telling me it was his best piece; at that time he believed it was his best work.

Then the adventure began: the rehearsal process with Lenny - working closely with him as composer and conductor; touring the U.S. with the New York Philharmonic, his own band. We went all the way across the country from New York to Chicago, through the Midwest, to Los Angeles. We performed the Serenade maybe eight times on that tour. Since then, I have played it regularly, and I get frequent requests for it. Now it seems Masur has fallen for it too.

You performed this piece with the Philharmonic as a tribute to Bernstein when he died in 1990.

That's right. I was scheduled to play the Beethoven Violin Concerto with guest conductor Leonard Slatkin. But when we heard about Lenny's death, I called the Philharmonic's administration and said, look, we can't fail to recognize what has happened; we must change the repertoire to honor him. I had about two weeks to prepare the Serenade, and we managed to put it together. It was a very touching experience, to do the piece at that time.

What is the Serenade like to prepare?

It is a very awkward piece. I don't believe Lenny really knew the technical ins and outs of the fiddle at the time he wrote the Serenade. He received some help from Stern, of course. But I believed in the piece, and I hope I do it justice when I play it. It has some profound moments in it. It is based on the Symposium of Plato. The slow movement is very profound. It is well worth the effort it takes to learn it. I remember rehearsing the slow movement with Lenny and the tears came into his eyes. He wrote it just after his success with "West Side Story." It was a very good period for him.

All those years of touring must have taught you some survival strategies.

Touring can be very tough, and one has to learn to survive it. We travel and we play. Often when we get to a town, we go directly to the hotel, and two hours later we're on the bus to the hall for a sound check. As a strategy to relax, I have developed a skill for taking mini-naps. I just force myself to close my eyes for 4 or 5 minutes. It rejuvenates me, almost like a form of meditation, just to cleanse my mind of all thoughts for a few minutes.