"The bigger businesses are more and more understanding the value of sending cultural ambassadors to cities where we have business ties," says Paavo Jarvi, the symphony's music director.

The Cincinnati Symphony is embarking on an 11-concert tour of nine cities in five countries, including the major music capitals Vienna, Paris, Frankfurt, Cologne, Madrid and Barcelona. The 110-year-old orchestra will make its Paris debut and will return to Vienna for the first time in a decade. Several concerts, including Paris' legendary Chatelet Theater, are already sold out.

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Janelle Gelfand updates the trip through her blog at Cincinnati.Com. Find it online starting tomorrow. Follow the symphony: The orchestra will have a "virtual tour" on their web site.

"It's standard for the Vienna Philharmonic to play in all those cities," says Jarvi. "For us to go there and show them that, look, we come from Cincinnati, Ohio, but we're just as good - we have a chance in the most direct possible way to present to European audiences our way of seeing the music."

This outing and last year's tour of Japan help to sell the orchestra's Telarc CDs - now at more than 9 million sold. Feature stories about Jarvi and the orchestra are already hitting European newsstands.

Good for city's business

The tour will also offer a chance for local business leaders to sell the region as a business destination. The Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce will court VIPs from up to 40 European companies during a Paris aerospace seminar and symphony concert.

The idea is to persuade French aerospace suppliers to establish U.S. operations in our region, says Nick Vehr, vice president of economic development for the Chamber of Commerce.

"There's no question; the arts and cultural attractions in our region are a distinct selling point," he says.

Local companies are quick to sponsor this kind of tour, partly because a major orchestra enhances their recruitment package and adds to employees' quality of life.

"Supporting the orchestra is good for the city, but in addition, it shows Europe that Cincinnati is a good place to be," says Pierre Fabre, president and CEO of tour co-sponsor CFM International .

Fabre will be taking customers to the orchestra's Paris concert Nov. 5. The experience could prove that Cincinnati is not a cultural backwater, and entice workers and their families to come here to live.

"It shows that Cincinnati is not what European people think it is sometimes," he says. "If I go to my friends and say I live in Cincinnati, they say, Cinci-what? It's a provincial city; they've heard about it, but it doesn't have the reputation of being very upscale."

Along with CFM International - a joint venture of GE and Snecma Moteurs - the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky area is home to 28 French companies.

For Erlanger-based Toyota Motor Manufacturing of North America, a $50,000 sponsorship of the European tour is "money well spent," says Jim Wiseman, vice president of corporate affairs. Toyota was also a sponsor for the orchestra's Japan tour last year.

"For a city to have outstanding arts organizations like the symphony is a big deal for us," Wiseman says.

The orchestra's newest album, a disc of music by Stravinsky and Nielsen, was timed for release this month, so that Jarvi could hold CD-signing sessions at nearly every stop.

"Our orchestra is right now internationally seen as one of the big success stories in the American classical scene," Jarvi says. "It's a world-class orchestra in a world-class city, in a way. It's not the biggest, most glamorous city, but I think that this would be one of the ways in showing the world that this is a great city."

Playing Mahler in Vienna

Vienna is a city steeped in music - where a golden statue of Johann Strauss Jr. graces its city park, and where giants like Beethoven and Mozart lived, composed and performed their own music.

It's tough to play Mahler in Vienna - the city where the composer lived, wrote many of his works and conducted the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Court Opera.

Friday, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra will perform Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in Vienna's Konzerthaus, home of the Vienna Symphony.

"The origins of this music is in Europe," conductor Paavo Jarvi says. "And there always will be a certain skepticism from European cities to accept even the best American orchestra as something equally good to an European orchestra - not necessarily in terms of the playing quality, but in terms of understanding."

But the Cincinnati Symphony is a lot like European orchestras, he says, because its musicians are "willing and hungry to explore the inner world, those inner details. Because playing something perfectly, in terms of the right notes, the right rhythms, dynamically - that is just the beginning."

They are bringing a Mahler symphony on purpose, he says, because they have something to prove.

"I know there's a very good likelihood of us being just killed by critics, because Viennese critics are famous for being picky and very protective of their own," he says. "But I think we have something to offer and I don't believe in hiding. We will put it all on the line, we will do our absolute best, and we have no reason to be shy."

French pianist Helene Grimaud will accompany the orchestra as tour soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and the Schumann Piano Concerto.

Besides Mahler's Fifth, tour repertoire includes Dvorak's Symphony No. 7, Sibelius' Symphony No. 5, Carl Nielsen's Maskarade Overture, Kodaly's Dances of Galanta and Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tuur's Aditus.

"There needs to be something that shows off the orchestra, and that presenters can sell, as well," says the Estonian-born conductor. "And I always try to mix programs so that there is something from Estonia."

Tour stops

Friday - Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria

Saturday - Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany

Sunday - Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Germany

Nov. 2 - Cologne Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany

Nov. 3 - Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany

Nov. 4 - Rosengarten Culture and Congress Center, Mannheim, Germany

Nov. 5 - Chatelet Theatre Musical de Paris, Paris, France

Nov. 6 - Muziekcentrum Enschede, Enschede, the Netherlands

Nov. 8-9- Auditorio Nacional del Musica, Madrid, Spain

Nov. 10 - Palau de la Musica Catalana, Barcelona, Spain

Cincinnati Symphony tour by the numbers:

100 - Musicians

13 - Technical crew and staff

1 - Soloist (pianist Helene Grimaud)

1 - Doctor (Dr. Eric Warm)

$3 million - Cargo value

18,509 - Pounds of cargo

1 - Purchased plane seat for a cello

2,010 - Seats in Paris' Chatelet Theater (sold out)

11,800 - Total miles to be clocked during tour

$500,000 - Approximate cost per week of touring internationally

4 - Tour sponsors (Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, CFM International, General Electric and Convergys). The balance of tour costs are covered by fees and presenters.

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E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com