**For a review of Perlman's January 22 concert with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, click here.**

Violinist Itzhak Perlman has been a legend for decades. Depending on which story you select, the oldest you can consider Perlman as "famous" is age 13, when, on November 2, 1958, Ed Sullivan introduced Perlman to the television viewing audience for a performance that included Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee."

Long, clean, elegant phrases of violin music. Finger dexterity of a hummingbird. The sense of humor that transforms ticket-buyers into friends. There's no question why the Perlman-RPO show this weekend sold out ahead of schedule.

This weekend Perlman will join the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, Opus 35. "The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto is one of the jewels in the crown of violin repertoire," says Perlman. "It's Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. Those are the four war horses in the repertoire."

Perlman characterizes Tchaikovsky as "a heart-on-your-sleeve kind of composer." "He was never, ever pretentious," says Perlman. "Whatever you hear is something straight from the heart. He wrote great melodies and phenomenal orchestration. The orchestra here [in the Violin Concerto] is a very major part in the piece; it is a kind of symphonic accompaniment."

Perlman first recorded the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in 1967 when he was just 22 years old. "It's very funny. It was a Reader's Digest record club offering with the London Symphony Orchestra - that was actually the first recording," he says.

Perlman has recorded on everything from reel-to-reel through vinyl to MP3, winning a staggering 15 Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, and countless other prizes for his recordings and documentaries.

Even Perlman cannot escape that eternal matter of classical musicians continuing to play certain pieces throughout their careers. "The war horses are part of what we do. How can one go through a career without repeating Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky, or whatever it is for their particular instrument?" he asks. "The great challenge is, how do you repeat the same piece and make it sound fresh and spontaneous? That is the challenge."

Perlman continues: "If the piece is great, then it's much easier to do," he says. "What I'm telling you, I tell my students: isolate the playing part and concentrate on the music part. Play it over and over that way and it will be fresh."

With his stature, Perlman naturally has access to some of the world's great violins. While Perlman says that it is "fun" to sometimes try out another violin to see what it sounds like, "I only play on my own violins."

And which of his two violins will Perlman play while in Rochester? "My Strad," Perlman says, referring to his 1714 Soil Stradivarius. "This is a violin that I dreamt about when I was younger, and I was very lucky to be able to purchase it."

Perlman dismisses whether there is any remaining repertoire that presents a challenge to him. "It is always a challenge; everybody has challenges in their repertoire," he says. "And everybody's technical challenges are different. You talk to about three or four or five different musicians and they'll talk about their comfort zone. One will hear another and say, ‘I don't know how you can do that; it's so difficult,' and the other will say, ‘It's easy.'"

"What's easy for you" was also the 1981 "Sesame Street" segment with a little girl running up the stairs with a violin that she was just learning how to play, followed by Perlman, climbing the stairs in leg braces, only to easily play the violin. "I loved doing that," says Perlman. Perlman's "Sesame Street" appearances remain part of his official website, and are posted on his Facebook page.

As for Perlman's own childhood, stories abound, including one that Perlman could, at age 2, listen to opera on the radio and sing it back. Of this Perlman says, "I'm told that I could repeat melodies, but I don't particularly remember that. I know I gave the signals that I was not exactly unmusical."

Perlman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, then British Palestine, to Chaim and Shoshana Perlman. According to Perlman, neither of his parents were professional musicians and neither played an instrument, but they responded positively to his request for a violin when he was only 3 years old.

"My parents supported my music," says Perlman. "I had polio when I was 4, and after that I wanted to continue to play the violin and they couldn't see any reason why not."

Because of his successful appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and his participation in the associated "Caravan of the Stars" tour of the United States, Perlman and his mother were permitted to immigrate to the States in 1958. Perlman went on to graduate from the Juilliard School, and in 1963 had his professional debut at Carnegie Hall, playing the Wieniawski Violin Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 14.

Every famous musician offers advice to aspiring students. Perlman is no different, although his advice is distinct: practice slowly.

Perlman explains, "If you practice slowly, you forget slowly. If you practice fast, you will forget fast. If you practice slowly, it should stay with you for a long time."

Among Perlman's teaching credits is the Perlman Music Program at the Arsht Center in Miami, Florida, established in 1993 with his wife, Toby. Since 1999 he has been a chair at The Juilliard School.

As recently as December 2011, Perlman was back in the recording studio for a new CD he calls a "smorgasbord" of Jewish music in various forms, including cantorial, Klezmer, and secular songs.

"I was growing up listening to Klezmer and cantorial music," says Perlman. "I've always found recording with singers is a great joy. I've done that with Placido [Domingo]...a little stint with [Luciano] Pavarotti..."

Perlman discounts the economy as an excuse for any apparent downturn in classical music as a business, saying, "The music itself - if it is great, people will still run to hear a great performance of ‘Don Giovanni,' a wonderful symphony by Beethoven, and that will not go away. I don't believe in the doom and gloom some people are saying about classical music."

Perlman's forecast for classical music remains optimistic, in spite of the recent rash of symphony bankruptcies and financial pressures, like those facing the Westchester Philharmonic in Westchester County, where Perlman was artistic director from 2007 to 2010.

In fact, Perlman describes himself as "an eternal optimist," adding "classical music has been here for a while and it will stay that way."

Having used up my allotted 15 minutes of interview time, I was reluctant to try to get in that one more question, but I prefaced it by asking Perlman if he had the time and he was inviting.

I mentioned 1987, when Perlman joined the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for its performances in Warsaw (Poland) and Budapest (Hungary), a time when these were still "Eastern Bloc countries," and then his similar performances in Moscow and Leningrad (U.S.S.R.) in 1990, at a time when it was about to split apart into Russia and a score of independent countries.

Given current political climates, I asked Perlman if there was a chance that he would perform in places like Tibet, Iran, or North Korea?

"It has to come to me," he said clearly and with the diplomacy of a different era, and then he fell silent for a moment. "I always believe that the music was like a thermometer of relations between countries."

"The Israel Philharmonic - you raise the perfect example," he continued. "Things in the Soviet Union...when relations started to warm up a little bit with Israel, the orchestra was invited. When relations are still cold, we know that because we are not invited. The music is the first indication of a warming up. I definitely agree that this is something that is there: the signal of warming up relationships."

Another pause. "When the countries are ready, they will come. Music is an international language," he said.

Itzhak Perlman

With the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra

Sunday, January 22

Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St.

3 p.m. | SOLD OUT | 454-2100, rpo.org