Alban Gerhardt will perform the Dvorak concerto in an all-Czech program Saturday.

When he was a teenager, Alban Gerhardt dreamed of a career playing cello in his hometown orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic. His father was a violinist in that orchestra, and Gerhardt thought about working his way up to first chair. Besides, he wanted a family and the life on the road as a soloist was not conducive to that.

So he has had to strike a compromise. For at 38, he is one of the most sought-after soloists of his generation, a musician who spends about 200 days a year traveling, while helping his Puerto Rican singer wife raise their 9-year-old son, Janos.

Gerhardt will in fact be flying in from Berlin this week to perform with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Saturday at Veterans Memorial Auditorium. He is flying over for just this one gig, just as he did two weeks ago when he played a couple of concerts with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario.

Rather than head out on tour and spend weeks away from home, Gerhardt likes to return to Berlin between concert dates, even if that means spending a lot of time in the air. He said he doesn’t get jet lag.

Gerhardt will, of course, be playing just one concert here, something he said he normally doesn’t do. Many orchestras give at least a couple of performances of a program. But he had such a good time working with conductor Larry Rachleff in San Antonio, where Rachleff was music director, that he agreed to help the Philharmonic open its season Saturday with a performance of the Dvorak concerto.

“He was really wonderful,” Gerhardt said of Rachleff, “and he told me that the Rhode Island Philharmonic is a fantastic orchestra. I figured the artistic collaboration would be high enough to make it worth coming for one concert.”

Gerhardt pretty much splits his time between Germany and the United States, where he went to school and lived for eight years. He said he is one of the few German musicians to do so, because he is so willing to hop a plane and fly here. Most European performers won’t travel to the States unless they have several concerts lined up, he said.

Besides, he loves American orchestras.

“I always love playing here because the orchestras have less of an attitude. It’s much easier to work with them because they speak to me. In Germany they are not as flexible.

“I studied in Cincinnati and the training was more academic. We were so busy studying we didn’t have time to think about ourselves. But in Germany we have so much time we really can think about how great we are.”

As a youngster, Gerhardt, who has appeared at the Newport Music Festival, juggled both piano and cello. But he gave up the piano when he was about 20, thinking it would be difficult to bring a singular voice to the instrument. He was studying at the Cincinnati Conservatory at the time, and working on the first Chopin concerto.

“I heard that piece coming out of every other practice room door,” he said, “and I began questioning myself, saying what’s special about me playing that piece. I didn’t feel I was doing anything more meaningful than those other players.”

In a way, Gerhardt doesn’t seem like the typical concert artist. He’s not one to go in for heavy marketing or the other trappings that musicians must endure to have big careers.

He said he has been offered a contract with a major record label, but is hesitant to sign the deal because the company wants him to do a Baroque album of greatest hits, things like Pachelbel’s Canon.

“I don’t have to see my face everywhere or be told I’m the greatest,” he said. “But I am ambitious. My ambition is to play as best as possible.”

Even during the dress rehearsal for the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, where Gerhardt was also playing the Dvorak, he gave it his all. He could have turned in a half-hearted effort, he said, and no one would have said anything. But he said he didn’t want to let his fellow musicians down.

“When I feel I can’t do anything meaningful with the music I get depressed.”

Actually, Gerhardt had doubts about becoming a professional cellist in the first place. When he was 20 he said he got so nervous performing that his hands sweated and shook.

“I thought I wasn’t going to get into a very good orchestra,” he said, “but I solved it rather simply by taking myself out of the center of attention so I didn’t think it was about me, but more about the piece.

“It’s not my concerto. I play the most prominent part, but I depend on the orchestra and conductor to do their part.”

Gerhardt has played the Dvorak —arguably the greatest concerto for the cello, and some say any instrument — about 100 times in the past 18 years. But each time he comes back to it, he likes to start fresh, to go back to basics.

“I like to take out the metronome and remind myself what Dvorak had in mind,” he said. “Then I add the freedom. I don’t start with freedom and add more freedom.

“That’s my theory why some performances are quite distorted, because people add more and more freedom until you can’t recognize the piece.”

Also, he tries not to play the Dvorak more than a few times a season.

“I never do it 20 times in a row,” he said. “That way I keep it fresh.”

Cellist Alban Gerhardt joins the Rhode Island Philharmonic Saturday night at 8 at Veterans Memorial Auditorium for an all-Czech program with conductor Larry Rachleff. Besides the Dvorak concerto, the orchestra will be performing Smetana’s The Moldau and Janacek’s Sinfonietta.

Tickets are $33-$69, with discounts for seniors and students. Call (401) 248-7000 or (401) 421-2787, or log on to www.arttixxri.com. Gerhardt will also appear at an open rehearsal with the orchestra tomorrow evening at 5:30. Tickets are $27 for adults, $12 for students.

cgray@projo.com