Andres Cardenes has been cooking on stage for some time, yet only recently has the violinist decided he was "just right" for a major endeavor. The scope of it tells you why: He will record about 50 pieces over the next four years, including 25 concertos.

"I felt I needed a lot of seasoning," says the 50-year-old concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with a laugh. "I have been waiting to embark on a big recording project; I think I am ready now. Whatever I put down will be my statement of the pieces for posterity, and I wanted to be a good enough violinist to say this is what I really feel."

The music label Artek recently released the project's first installment, with Cardenes tackling two of the most beloved pieces in the repertoire, violin concertos by Brahms and Mendelssohn, performed with the Polish orchestra Sinfonia Varsovia.

On the horizon are recordings on a variety of labels of concertos of Copland (an orchestral arrangement of his Violin Sonata), Beethoven, Bartok, Elgar, Lalo ("Symphonie Espagnole"), Chausson ("Poeme"), Leonardo Balada (complete "Caprichos"), Roberto Sierra and David Stock. Concertos by Saint Saens, Bruch, Elgar, Glazunov and Tchaikovsky are likely.

As if that were not enough, Cardenes also plans to record the 10 Beethoven violin sonatas with pianist Ian Hobson, along with violin works by Respighi, Franck, Faure. "As you can see, it's going to be a busy year," he says, although Cardenes intends to take a sabbatical from his teaching duties at Carnegie Mellon University.

In the midst of this whirlwind, Cardenes continues to expand his podium work. Having conducted the PSO chamber incarnation for nearly a decade and covered several mainstage concerts, Cardenes was recently granted by management a subscription concert weekend each year.

"I don't think I am going to ever give up the fiddle," he says. "But I don't think I will be in that chair forever, and I must lay the foundation for the next chapter, which includes soloing and conducting. As soon as I become a free agent, the conducting career will take off."

Cardenes' contract with the PSO concludes at the end of August 2011. He doesn't know for sure if he will leave the orchestra then, but he "[doesn't] want to die in the chair."

His program for this weekend reflects his broad musical interests. Although the Cuban-born Cardenes is known as a champion of Latin American composers, he is just as comfortable with Hindemith, Schumann and Mozart.

"I wanted to have a Germanic program," he says.

Hindemith's "Concert Music for Strings and Brass," which the PSO has not played since 1963 under William Steinberg, "is based on baroque and classical styles," he says. "It is a fabulous piece and it shows off two fabulous sections of our orchestra."

Schumann's Symphony No. 3, "Rhenish," was actually the composer's fourth and final symphony. "The symphony is incredibly dense," says Cardenes. "I am going to focus on making the strings sound as beautiful as possible. I will talk [to the PSO] about where I want things played on the bow and spend a lot of time on texture and color. The bow strokes themselves are north and south, but the colors are east and west -- close to the bridge or away from it."

The final piece, Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, unites him with Korean violinist Chee-Yun, whose musicality he has admired since meeting her in a New York violin shop 15 years ago. "She is an elegant violinist with a beautiful technique. She will play the piece without fussing with it."

And neither will Cardenes fuss with her playing, even though he knows the solo part well. "I enjoy accompanying immensely," he says. "Having been a soloist all my life, I know what a soloist needs. I just try to make the orchestra conform to what the soloist is trying to say. And I know all the traps."

With his prominent role in the PSO and his soloing, Cardenes enjoys the occasional respite from the spotlight when conducting a dynamic soloist: "The focus is not on me, and I enjoy that sometimes."