Two or three years ago, when the Seattle Symphony Orchestra began discussing with the legendary conductor Kurt Masur a guest role during SSO’s 2009-10 season, Masur insisted on a condition that had nothing to do with the program of Mozart and Bruckner he will lead at Benaroya Hall tonight through Saturday.

Masur, the 82-year-old music director emeritus of the New York Philharmonic and music director for life of the Orchestre National de France in Paris, also wanted to do something with and for a local group of young musicians or developing conductors. Perhaps a master class, he suggested, or some other tutelage of the sort that helps keep him busy amid his whirlwind schedule of worldwide appearances.

“From the beginning as a conductor, I felt younger generations must be oriented to the classical tradition,” says Masur by phone following a morning rehearsal with SSO. “In America, you are far away from that tradition. This is knowledge conductors and musicians must have to lead and play.”

RTWT