It takes courage to program the music of Alfred Schnittke. Not that there's anything wrong with Schnittke's writing. There isn't. As played, and thrillingly so, by the Reno Chamber Orchestra at its Saturday night concert (3/29/2003) at Nightingale Concert Hall, Schnittke's Concerto Gross No. 1 had somewhat the same impact Stravinsky's "The Rites of Spring" had on its first audience when it premiered in Paris in 1913.

American audiences are too well-behaved to riot. So there was none of that. Just lots of pro-and-con conversation at intermission. It's time fans of the RCO got their tails twisted with music that baffles, as much as it bewitches, bothers and bewilders. The Schnittke was a breath of very fresh air.

The conductor who had the temerity to expose Reno audiences to Schnittke's wild and woolly sounds is Theodore Kuchar, an American who has spent a good deal of his career as a major conductorial talent, not in Paris, but in the Ukraine. It's as the conductor of the National Orchestra of Ukraine that Kuchar became a devotee of Schnittke's music. It's Mr. Kuchar's good luck he wasn't in the former Soviet Union during the heyday of Stalinist thinking and banishments to Siberia.

That Kuchar is a candidate to be the RCO's next conductor makes his debut here with the Schnittke all the more gutsy. It is, however, a gutsy gamble that paid off. The seven-movement work is a wonder of invention. From the prepared piano sounds a la John Cage, to zigzags through the crusty edges of what the composer called polystylism, the work is awash in dissonance, volleys of crushing sounds, astonishing moments of lyricism and even more astonishing moments of melodic and rhythmic schmaltz. What's not to love?

In the enviable roles of the piece's concertino, violinists Philip Ruder and Ruth Lenz played up, what has often been referred to as, a proverbial storm. The Schnittke is very tough stuff and they passed every test with flying bows and dazzling virtuosity. The orchestra was with them every off-beat meter of the way. It was a tour de force for all and nothing short of a triumph for Kuchar's shrewd programming and extensive skills at bringing this wonderfully vibrant and amazingly theater-worthy music home in a winning fashion.

If the Schnittke was stunning and it was, in the best sense of the word, the two Mozart works, his Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major and his Symphony No. 41 in C Major, the "Jupiter," were revelatory and riveting. While Kuchar's baton technique was obviously virtuosic for the Schnittke, his technique and musicianship rose to the heights for the concerto, then soared for the symphony.

Violinist Rita Lammers, the orchestra's concerto competition winner for this year, was a superb collaborator with Kuchar and the orchestra for the concerto. The Lammers' technique is a musician's-musican kind of technique: It gets the job done, but it never outshines the glories of the music. Mozart's music may glitter, but it's not fluff. Lammers and Kuchar struck just the right mood for a reading without affectation, that was, all the same, affecting. She has a lovely, unforced sound. Kuchar's teaming was perfectly supportive, but also brought out the concerto's heftier moments that gave this happy collaboration just enough weight to avoid landing on the side of fluff, yet not so much weight as to flatten the souffle.

As terrific as the concerto was, as fascinating as the Schnittke is and was played, it was the splendid interpretation of Mozart's "Jupiter" that made the concert one of the most memorable in the Reno Chamber Orchestra's nearly thirty years of existence.

The total immersion of Kuchar with the music, his instinctiveness for what Mozart had in mind and his mastery of conveying Mozart's inspirations to the orchestra and through the orchestra to listeners, provided one of those rare instances when creation and realization meet for one incandescent moment that radiates hope from the best mankind has to offer. In a dark time, that gives one hope for the future of mankind, and that is, is it not, what art is supposed to do, make life more beautiful? Bravo to all, but most especially to Theodore Kuchar, for the thrill, beauty and hope of it all.

The Reno Chamber Orchestra's final concert of the season, its farewell to founding maestro Vahe Khochayan, will feature the music of Boyce, Arutiunian, and Mozart. With Vahe Khochayan conducting and guest artists violinist Catherine Manoukian and violist Molly Carr. The concert can be heard at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 12, 2003, at Nightingale Concert Hall, 900 North Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada. For information call 775-343-9413.