FOUR strings and a bow. That's all he has at his fingertips, but in concert, virtuoso cellist Pieter Wispelwey summons swirling worlds of sound. As if by magic.

"The cello can describe and symbolise so many things,'' the 41-year-old musician says. "It can be very aggressive, very gentle. That's why it's such a marvellous instrument.'' Wispelwey is now acknowledged as a master of the modern and baroque cello. Classical music critics acclaim his muscular stage performances and applaud him for taking risks with recordings of J.S. Bach and Benjamin Britten. But what separates this flying Dutchman from other talented cellists of his generation? On the eve of a Melbourne concert with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Wispelwey admits there's no easy answer.

"It's a law of nature,'' he says. "There's a selection process and that's not 100 per cent about talent. It's also about luck and geography. "Holland may not be the most advantageous place to start, but I definitely wanted to live my life as a soloist so that meant being determined, being disciplined, being a diplomat.'' Wispelwey chuckles: "That was one field I had difficulty with. As a Dutchman, I can be quite direct.'' For his latest tour Down Under, Wispelwey is collaborating with musicians from Leipzig -- a city alive with the heritage of great composers -- and playing Schumann's Cello Concerto in A Minor. "It's a fantastic cocktail of ideas, emotions and gestures floating on inspiration,'' the cellist says. "In any performance, the musician should give the impression he is composing or at least recomposing the piece, and that's particularly true for Schumann.'' Wispelwey will be playing a "regular model'' steel-stringed cello with "lots of power''. "A concert is such a magical event,'' he says. "You've got 3000 people or so listening to something abstract and everyone is having different emotions and thoughts about it.'' Wispelwey was moved to tears himself recently while watching a Jiri Kylian ballet set to Mozart. "It was just so overwhelming, quite a shock, really. Art can take you by surprise if you're curious and open to it.'' The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, plays the Concert Hall tomorrow, 8pm.