The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra announced Monday it will go on its first European tour in 14 years, and the first under the leadership of music director David Robertson.

It will be a compact tour — just four days in as many cities — and it's all paid for. That's a big deal, in an era when other orchestras accustomed to making regular jaunts across the Atlantic — such as the in-bankruptcy Philadelphia Orchestra — have had to cut back.

It marks an important watershed in the life of the orchestra, which suffered a near-death financial crisis a decade ago. In the intervening years, the SLSO has put its fiscal house in order and gained new supporters, making it possible to contemplate an international tour.

On its tour in September, the orchestra will make debut performances at the Musikfest Berlin — Berliner Festspiele, the Lucerne Festival and at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.

There will be an additional concert in London; the details are still to be announced. However, given the timing and Robertson's connections in that city, the performance will almost certainly be a part of the celebrated Proms, at the Royal Albert Hall.

"After a long hiatus, it's really an opportunity," said SLSO president and CEO Fred Bronstein. "It represents all of the things that St. Louis has to offer culturally to the world. It's a huge honor for an American orchestra to be invited; only a few on the top rung ever are."

Bronstein noted that the undertaking is among the "most tightly" financed orchestra tours ever. "It's fully paid for, and paid for without taking any funds away" from the SLSO's regular sources of funding.

The orchestra will receive fees and in-kind contributions, such as hotel rooms, from the festivals. The tour budget has also received major dedicated funding from Monsanto Co. and from several anonymous donors, who contributed to a quiet fundraising drive led by former chairman of the board Virginia Weldon. That ensured a balanced budget for the tour. "Frankly, it wouldn't have happened without her," Bronstein said.

"There are no holes in the tour financing," Bronstein emphasized. "That's very, very important. We wouldn't have done it otherwise." The plans have been in the making for more than three years.

Robertson has been talking about taking the orchestra to Europe, and laying out a strategy to make it work, since becoming music director in 2005. Next September will be the beginning of his eighth season with the SLSO.

Tours are acknowledged to be a near-necessity for any orchestra that aspires to greatness. Since it's been so long since the SLSO's last European venture, many younger members of the orchestra have never experienced an international tour. "In my experience, touring makes an orchestra better" said Bronstein. "Playing in different halls is demanding, under the scrutiny of extra eyes and ears."

The programming features the superb German violinist Christian Tetzlaff, who performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto in last weekend's performances with the SLSO. He'll take it and the Beethoven Violin Concerto on tour.

Tetzlaff said that he and Robertson first discussed the possibility a year ago. "At some time it looked like it was not going to happen; then it came back," he said. "I am very happy to do this. Those are beautiful cities to play in, and I really like the aspect of growing with a piece, combining with an orchestra and conductor that want to go further with a piece. David Robertson and I think very much alike about music-making."

The other programming, chosen with the festivals, includes works by Brahms, Gershwin, Ives and Elliot Carter. Robertson said that the breadth of the SLSO's offerings were "a delight" for festival programmers. "Usually, when orchestras go on tour, they don't take their more interesting programs. They know this is what the orchestra and I are doing all the time."

Robertson emphasized that the SLSO will be "the ambassadors for the region. This is something where St. Louis goes out and greets the world, and leaves them with a smile on their face. How often does that happen?"