Carrying the tune

Charles Dutoit has a lot to celebrate with the Orchestra — just don’t remind him about it

 When we sat down at the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall in March, Charles Dutoit had recently visited the Art Museum’s “Cezanne and Beyond” exhibit. The show featured a host of artists from the past century, placing abstract modern work alongside the more traditional — and still drew crowds.

It was this last fact that Dutoit particularly envied.

“Building a rich season is very hard, especially in a time like today, where there is financial crisis,” Dutoit said.

“There are a few things that the general public likes to hear again and again. They like to be reassured, and they’re not there to discover new things. It’s actually very strange that in the visual arts, it’s just the opposite.”

Dutoit will end his first season as chief conductor and artistic adviser this weekend with three performances of Berlioz’s “Requiem.” He remains fixated on one major goal during his tenure at the helm — maintaining the fabled “Philadelphia sound.”

“For the time I’m here, I’m trying to keep the orchestra in the same shape,” he says. “Today, unfortunately, these things are disappearing. I teach classes in China and Japan and South America, and I can see how little this young generation is concerned about these things.”

The coming season will also coincide with Dutoit’s 30th anniversary with the Orchestra. But don’t count on the Maestro himself to celebrate that date.

“I hate commemorations,” he says. “People can talk about it, but don’t count on me. I hate those things.”

The Philadelphia Orchestra: Berlioz’s Requiem
Tonight, 8
Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m.
Kimmel Center
Broad and Spruce streets
$19-$115, 215-893-1999
www.philorch.org