Shlomo Mintz Counts His Blessings Too : Music: The violinist and violist, who will lead the Israel Chamber Orchestra in Cerritos tonight, is a master of many trades, also serving as artistic director and conductor.

Nearly everybody in classical music has heard that old saw about Vivaldi writing a great concerto--600 times. Shlomo Mintz, who will lead the Israel Chamber Orchestra in Cerritos tonight, attributes the remark to composer Luigi Dallapiccola. But Mintz isn’t laughing.

“Although I would not want to get personal on this at all, I would urge Mr. Dallapiccola to take a closer look at those works, and then tell me if it’s been written 600 times,” said Mintz, reached by phone at a tour stop in Montreux, Switzerland.

“I am sure I can convince him otherwise.”

Unfortunately, Dallapiccola died in 1975. Still, Mintz has become somewhat of an expert on the subject of Vivaldi. He and the Chamber Orchestra are surveying the complete Vivaldi concertos for violin and orchestra for Music Masters Classics; six compact discs, including the first-ever recording of the “Anna Maria” concertos, have already been released.

Locally, Mintz will take a breather from that repertory. He and the orchestra will tackle Hindemith’s Trauermusik for viola and orchestra, with Mintz as viola soloist; Schubert’s Rondo in A for violin and orchestra, D. 438, with Mintz as violin soloist; Stravinsky’s Concerto for Strings in D, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C, “Jupiter.”

Though better known as a violinist, Mintz regularly performs on viola with string quartets and other chamber ensembles. He declined to say whether he favors either instrument.

“The same mind and spirit should be behind (playing) the two,” he said. “There should be no technical difficulties in playing either. I try to be totally involved in interpretation and not ever think that ‘now I play the violin’ or ‘now I play viola.’ I enjoy doing everything equally.”

Five years ago, when he became artistic adviser to the 36-member Israel Chamber Orchestra, “doing everything” also came to include conducting. Last year, his capacity at ICO changed to that of guest conductor, and in March he was named artistic adviser and principal guest conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

“It’s all the joy of making music,” he said of his several careers, “of discovering those hidden beauties.”

So what’s next, drums?

“If I put my mind to it, that too is what I’d do,” he replied. “Right now it’s not.”

He was born in Moscow but emigrated with his family to Israel two years later. He made his concerto debut at age 11 with the Israel Philharmonic, and not long after that Zubin Mehta called on him to replace an indisposed Itzhak Perlman. Mintz made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at age 16.

Marking the 20th anniversary of that debut, he appeared last season as violin soloist with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and with the Orchestre National de France at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. He toured abroad with the Czech Philharmonic and Israel Chamber Orchestra and gave recitals in Europe and Russia.

Reflecting on two decades in the business of making music, he counted his blessings. “I take a very realistic view of how difficult things could be, and how difficult things were for other great men in the past. If one takes that overall view, one does not complain.”

* Shlomo Mintz and the Israel Chamber Orchestra play works by Hindemith, Schubert, Stravinsky and Mozart tonight at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. 8 p.m. $30 to $50. (310) 916-8500 or (800) 300-4345.