With the orchestra and two diverse soloists, peripatetic La Jolla Symphony Music Director Steven Schick explores three concertos – by Bela Bartok, Sergei Prokofiev and Mark Applebaum — on March 12 and 13 at Mandeville Auditorium, University of California, San Diego (UCSD). “I have a thing about concertos,” he said. “How do I put it? They represent not just a musical sense of organization but a social order as well.” Admittedly, finding the right equilibrium is not easy. “Too much flashy solo playing and a work degenerates into a shallow showpiece; too much heavy ensemble music and you’ve got the grace and allure of a lead balloon,” Schick said. He explains that both the concerto and the orchestra grew out of the democratic movement of the late 18th century and describes Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra as “a workers’ paradise.” “You can’t ask the featured artist to stand because that’s the whole orchestra,” he said. Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2 for violin features special guest 16-year-old Carlsbad resident Hannah Cho, winner of the orchestra’s 2009 Young Artist Competition. Of this work, Schick said, “If the orchestra represents a democracy, the soloist is the vestigial evidence of aristocracy.” While Bartok exemplifies democracy and Prokofiev the classical conversation between orchestra and soloist, Mark Applebaum’s Concerto for Florist has to be the “anti-concerto” or the “uncontended sharing of space. I would like to say that this is the greatest concerto for florist ever written. But it may not be. Who knows?” Ornamental horticulturist James DelPrince, who teaches floral design and interior “plantscaping” at Mississippi State University, has been associated with Applebaum’s work since its inception in 2000. In that version, DelPrince arranged flowers to improvised accompaniment. After percussionist Schick played percussion in a performance at Stanford University in May of 2009, he asked Applebaum to expand it to three movements for La Jolla Symphony. The accompanying score is now written out, as befits a work that is this year’s Nee Commission (named in honor of the late music director Thomas Nee). The soloist is still free to improvise because there is little coordination between the two entities: flowers and music. Schick compares the work of Merce Cunningham and John Cage: “There are some moments of synchronization, but for the most part there is space enough for unrelated or diverse activities. The space is shared rather than contended. Everybody’s happy.” Schick fans are happy to know that his recent appointment as director of San Francisco’s Contemporary Music Players will not affect his relationship with red fish blue fish (UCSD’s contemporary music ensemble), the university or La Jolla Symphony & Chorus. “I wouldn’t trade those experiences away at all. That I had to stay was part of the conversation.” Under the baton of Steven Schick La Jolla Symphony presents this intriguing and wide-ranging concerto program at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 12, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 13, Mandeville Auditorium, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, $14-$29, http://www.lajollasymphony.com or (858) 534-4637.