The hair is gone -- that long mane that flew in the breeze when he rode his motorcycle through St. Paul. But the heart of Dennis Russell Davies remains fervent for the music he brought to the Twin Cities with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra from 1972 to 1980. It's hard to believe that Davies has been gone 30 years, so distinct was his imprint on the classical scene here. He last guest-conducted the SPCO 13 years ago.

"It wasn't because of lack of effort on anyone's part," Davies said from Switzerland, where he's conducting the Basel Symphony for a week. "I wanted to get back for the 40th anniversary [in 1999], but the dates didn't work out."

This time things did work, and Davies will spend two weekends with the organization. They will visit three spots next weekend, with pianist Maki Namekawa (she and Davies are partners) and a program featuring Copland's "Music for the Theatre," Schnittke's "Concerto for Piano and Strings" and Mozart's Symphony in D from the "Haffner" Serenade. SPCO artistic partner Dawn Upshaw will join Davies April 29 through May 1 for John Cage's "The Seasons," Louis Andriessen's "Dances for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra," Ravel's "Chansons madécasses" and Beethoven's First Symphony.

Davies lives in Linz, Austria, where he is music director at the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the Linz Opera. The motorcycle is gone because he lives only a five-minute walk from the opera house and 15 minutes from the concert hall. Capable in German, Italian and French, he enjoys dual Austrian and U.S. citizenship ("So I still have the pleasure of paying taxes").

Davies came to St. Paul when he was 28 for his first real job. It seemed right that he would come here, he said, just as it felt right that he should leave in 1980, when opportunities opened up in Europe. He was hot stuff at the time, winning a Grammy in 1979 with the SPCO for a recording of Copland's "Appalachian Spring" and becoming the second American to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival. In the ensuing years, he has conducted at the Metropolitan in New York and the National Opera in Paris, premiered work by Philip Glass and completed an 11-year project in which he recorded all 107 Haydn symphonies with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. The 37-CD box set is available on Sony.

"The germ of that came from my SPCO days," he said. "Haydn was our Mahler, the thing we played at the end of the concerts. It was great music, and I wanted to know those symphonies."

Davies travels back to the United States frequently, but he likes working in opera and symphony, something he wouldn't get to do in the United States.

"It's a wonderful way to work," he said. "There's such a concentration in central Europe of opera houses and orchestras, while in the United States you just don't have that crossover."

While he's in the Twin Cities, Davies said he hopes to walk the banks of the Mississippi, catch a Twins game at Target Field ("I follow the box scores in USA Today"), visit his old friend Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and show Namekawa some fine cuisine.

"Is Mickey's Diner still there?" he asked.

Yes, some things never change.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299