Now that Carnegie Hall is featuring rock stars in its “Perspectives” series, other up-and-coming venues are picking up the slack of classical programming. One of these places is the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, which attempts to appeal to younger audiences by emphasizing quality rather than trendiness.

In a gesture of camaraderie to a sister organization, Miller has invited Leon Botstein – in one of his several incarnations as the president of Bard College – to conduct a series with the American Symphony Orchestra titled “The Classics Declassified.” The name says it all.

These concerts ostensibly attempt to educate a younger generation that doesn’t know Beethoven the composer from Beethoven the St. Bernard. First, there is a lecture by professor Botstein on one particular work; then there’s a performance of the piece, followed by a question-and-answer session. The good news was that every seat was filled on Sunday afternoon. The bad news was that the average age of the audience was somewhere north of 65.

The talk, about Richard Strauss’s tone poem “Don Quixote,” was vintage Botstein. He explained that Strauss assumed everyone in the audience would have read the original book. Today, he speculated, “at least some of us have been to the musical.”The professor discussed the tone poem as a genre and then offered musical examples played by the assembled troops behind him.

Strauss once remarked that he was “the best of the second-rate composers.” “Don Quixote” is a good example of what I believe he meant.

We heard the “Peter and the Wolf”- styled character themes, but also the subtle, coloristic changes Strauss employed to suggest Quixote’s madness. Many of the examples were provided by the quintet of soloists who carried the story forward: cellist Eugene Moye as the Don; violist Nardo Poy as the loquacious side of Sancho Panza; bass clarinetist Dennis Smylie and tenor tuba player Kenneth Finn, who together represented the portly, awkward aspect of the squire; and concert mistress Erica Kiesewetter, who added a romantic touch to the proceedings.

The actual performance of the approximately 45-minute work was wellengineered. Miller is a small place, and so the presence of a full symphony orchestra, complete with wind machine, overwhelmed acoustically. The louder passages, often reminiscent of the more famous “Alpine Symphony,” took their toll on my delicate ears, but much of the piece is quiet and was lovingly phrased. Mr. Moye, the de facto soloist, was dexterous enough, but lacked a rich tone and missed some opportunities for beautification of this problematic work.

The orchestra as a whole, which, along with its conductor, has been given unfairly short shrift in the local papers for many years now, delivered a close-to-flawless performance. In the episode where Don Quixote wades into and kills all the sheep (I am assuming you have read the book), their pantonal cacophony was very amusing and exciting. Blendings were smooth, entrances and exits precise, interplay between sections brisk and bright. Very impressive was the celestial glow of the Pilgrim’s March, which Mr. Botstein had mentioned in his lecture as sounding like Palestrina. After learning so much in such a short time just an hour before, we were all flush with the glow of new information put to use immediately.

Perhaps the best proof of the effectiveness of this approach is that virtually nobody left the hall before the question period began.The most interesting part of the day, this quickly evolved into a discussion of tone poetry versus film music. Mr. Botstein assumed a moderator’s role after admitting that he never went to the movies.

Incidentally, the professor is an excellent speaker, partly because of his erudition but also because he possesses an enviable sense of comic timing. When one fellow in the balcony rather shockingly stated that he had heard no Spanish music in the piece, Mr. Botstein, doing his best Jack Benny, replied, “Well, I did!” Then he followed up with a dazzling riff on nationalism in both music and classical literature. If Mr. Botstein doesn’t feel satisfied with the number of careers he has under his belt, he can always make a tour of the clubs in the Catskills (he already lives upstate).

So, is professor Botstein simply tilting at windmills in an effort to educate a recalcitrant public? Perhaps, but someone had better do it.