Precision with Passion

When the musicians of the Leningrad Philharmonic take the stage they look a little like a guards regiment on parade. They march on from opposite wings in cadenced step, and at times all 106 of them sit down in a single movement. Seated, they sometimes look to the casual observer about as animated as the tenants of a wax museum. But the appearance is deceiving. The Leningrad, now on its first tour of the U.S., is one of the world's great orchestras.

Unlike most Western orchestras, the Leningrad under permanent Conductor Eugene Mravinsky seems to strive less for a blend of orchestral sound than for a contrast of one orchestral section with another--slightly thick woodwinds, say, against blazingly powerful brasses. The orchestra's special glory is its string section, which includes 18 first violins and plays with surpassing balance, precision and dynamic range.

Conductor Mravinsky favors brisk, martial tempos, even in romantic music, and audiences not accustomed to the beat often find it unsettling. In the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5, Mravinsky whips through the tragic last movement at such a pace that to one critic he seemed to seize it "by the scruff of its neck with the brisk air of an English nanny determined to have no scenes in the nursery." Even so, the Leningrad's carefully detailed exposition of the Symphony moved a crowd in Washington's Constitution Hall to a standing ovation last week; its performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 12 was also a success. In that work the orchestra was precise, scrupulously attentive to detail but charged with an enormous vitality.

In the U.S.S.R. there are two Leningrad Philharmonics, which take turns giving concerts to sellout crowds. The present touring orchestra is regarded not only as the better of the two, but as the best orchestra in the country. The status is understandable because Mravinsky, the Soviet Union's best conductor, has had the Leningrad under his baton since 1938. The rehearsal facilities he has available to him would make any Western conductor envious: for a new or particularly difficult work there is absolutely no restriction on rehearsal time. But unlike some conductors, Mravinsky does not exhort his men to superhuman efforts. His theory is that if he trains them never to go all out, always to hold something back, they will play with greater precision.

Mravinsky presents concerts graded in order of difficulty from the light classical, something like the Boston Pops, to the music of the Western masters. No one is encouraged to attend the tough series unless he is a thoroughly experienced concertgoer.

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