Cellist Xavier Phillips

Classical music people are worried about the future of the business. Andreas Delfs spoke of his concern for the continued existence of institutions, such as the MSO, that allow artists to make a decent living. Xavier Phillips, a cellist anointed by no less than Mstislav Rostropovich, expressed some of the same concerns during an interview Thursday morning, before rehearsal with music director Edo de Waart and the MSO.

“Everything seems to be crashing and falling apart,” he said, in the guest soloist’s room backstage at Uihlein Hall. “It’s become a struggle, a struggle for art.”

Phillips, lean and intense, seemed to probe his feelings as he spoke. The native French speaker’s English is very good, but sometimes he stopped to search for just the right word.

Phillips, 39, sees the artist’s life as a sort of bargain. He gave up his youth to practicing, in return for the joys of the art, steady work and travel, respect, and a comfortable living. He understands he’s been blessed by life in many ways, but he didn’t factor in the current indignities of travel and the loneliness of a soloist’s life. He’s trying to figure out a way to play more chamber music and spend more time at home in Paris, with his 8-year-old son. He’s wondering whether to re-open his contract with life.

“I’m not bitter,” he said. “I’m just realistic about this musical life.”

He’s already moving that way in another area of his life. Phillips has run several marathons. He was determined to beat his personal best 3’17”, but then thought of the isolation of marathon training. Instead, he started playing pick-up soccer games whenever he can. He found the jokes and camaraderie more appealing that running mile after mile alone.

He’s wondering if he might find some better way to live in music than through the time-honored system of international stars, major and minor, who wander among a shrinking number of orchestras with shrinking budgets. He thinks that system might be breaking down, but he’s not sure about alternatives.

“I don’t need to be a star,” he said. “I just want to be able to play, and through my playing say what I have to say.”

Phillips’ parents are both pianists, and his father is also a composer. His brother, Jean-Marc, is a successful violinist and a member of Trio Wanderer.

“Music is quite a natural vocation for me,” Phillips said. “I never thought of another option.

“The practice room was my little jail,” he said. “I really practiced like crazy. I even took the cello to school, in case I had a chance to get away and practice. I isolated myself. I’m very aware that I cut myself off during some very important years. On the other hand, that gave me great potential. I’m not whining about it. But music is a radical life and full of difficult choices.”

Rostropovich was not only a great cellist and a fine conductor, but also an international celebrity and symbol of freedom in late-Soviet Russia. As a kid, Phillips idolized Rostropovich. In 1990, Phillips entered the Rostropovich cello competition. He finished third, but he caught the attention of the master.

“In youth, you have dreams and illusions,” Phillips said. “Sometimes, you meet someone you’ve admired, and he turns out just to be an ass. But Rostropovich was not that way. He was just as I thought he would be. From 1990 until he died, in 2007, he was a spiritual father to me. I always felt that he was just there, over my shoulder.”

In his youthful fantasies, Phillips thought he might someday be like Rostropovich.

“On his 70th birthday, in Paris they gave Rostropovich a big party,” he said. “They made a beautiful book for the occasion. On the last page, there is a picture of him against the cosmos. He was in the right place in the cosmos, at the right time. Times have changed a lot.”

Phillips worked with him on almost every concerto he learned through those years. The one exception is Edward Elgar’s concerto, which Phillips is playing with the MSO this weekend.

“I called him while he was in Paris and wanted to play it for him,” Phillips said, smiling at the memory. “He said, ‘Oh, my dear, I’m not very fond of this concerto.’ I understood. Just not his cup of tea.”

Phillips loves the 1919 concerto.

“It starts the same and ends the same, but in between joy and depression happen,” Phillips said. “It’s like a life, like mental states. It’s very sincere and very touching.”

It seems a good match for Phillips, whose sincerity is both touching and a little startling.

“The sound is the mirror of the soul,” he said. “When you hear something special, it’s because of something special in the player’s character, something that has to be revealed. I have not made my peace. I want power in my playing, but also beauty. Anger and passion is in it, too.

“A friend, a cellist in his 60s, told me: ‘When you play, I can hear what you didn’t get from life.'”

The program: Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7, Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber, all with Edo de Waart conducting. Concert times are 11:15 a.m. Friday and 8 .m. Saturday at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall. Tickets are $25-$79 Friday and $25-$95 Saturday at the MSO website, the MSO ticket line (414 291-7605) and the Marcus Center box office, 414 273-7206.