Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 10, 1995 TAG: 9502100039
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, founded four years ago and now on its first American tour, performs in Preston Hall at 8 p.m. Sunday under the direction of its Russian-born American conductor, Misha Rachlevsky.
Some orchestras devote years to honing their sound before touring and recording, but this young group's reputation was flying almost before it learned how to crawl or walk. In only four years the orchestra has released eight critically acclaimed compact discs on the Swiss Claves label, encompassing the music of Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Webern, Richard Strauss and others. Several other recording projects are finished and await release.
This American tour, which is underwritten by Delta Airlines, is the ensemble's 10th international excursion, with previous visits to Spain, France, England, Switzerland and other countries. Music director Rachlevsky chose smaller venues for the orchestra's first American expedition, with concerts in small- to medium-sized cities in the east and south. Radford is the group's seventh stop in the tour, which winds up on March 2 in Lake Worth, Fla.
The 48-year-old maestro was a violin virtuoso before taking up the baton, winning a chair in the renowned Moscow Chamber Orchestra while still a student. He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1973 and finally wound up in America in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Antal Dorati, playing what he jokingly refers to as "first nonprincipal violin."
Since he left the Soviet Union, Rachlevsky has become something of a specialist in founding brand-new orchestras. In 1984 he started the New American Chamber Orchestra, which he took for a two-year residency in Granada, Spain. While there he was invited to found an orchestra in Granada, which he proceeded to take on international tours.
In 1991, after returning to Moscow for a guest conductor stint with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, he decided to tap that city's reservoir of musical talent by founding the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin in September 1991 and got an almost immediate recording contract with Claves.
Consisting of 17 players plus Rachlevsky, the group specializes in mainstream Romantic and contemporary string works from the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century. The ensemble's program for Radford is typical of its repertoire, with the Elgar "Serenade for Strings," Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir de Florence," a Mozart adagio, and Rudolf Barshai's orchestration of the String Quartet No. 8 of Dmitri Shostakovich.
Rachlevsky says his players are able to achieve a refinement of expression that is difficult to coax from a full symphony orchestra.
"The degree of detail, a certain finesse is there because we're smaller and have more time to work on it. The typical symphony orchestra has four rehearsals, and a piece like the Elgar would not be a main offering - a main course like a Brahms symphony would tend to get most of the rehearsal time, whereas we are able to devote far more time to it," said Rachlevsky.
Having played in and conducted both American and Russian symphony orchestras, Rachlevsky has taken the measure of string players from both countries. So how does the typical American string section compare to one found in Moscow?
"There's a difference and a surprising difference. In general, string playing in America is at an incredibly high level. They're much faster in adapting to things than my Russian colleagues - they can get to a certain level of proficiency much faster than Russian players. And they know more repertoire as a rule than do Russian players, who tend to be more narrow.
"Russian musicians, on the other hand, take longer to get from one mode to the next. However, to take it to the next plateau, to the finer details, my experience is that I can get stronger results with Russian guys. Once I mold them into what I want to hear, I have stronger control - I feel that I can get closer to the sound that I hear inside.
"So, while the first steps are more difficult for me in Russia, the final result is superior to what I was getting with American players," said Rachlevsky, who attributed part of the difference to the "restrictions and limitations" inherent in working with American musicians' unions.
The lives of Russian musicians are tougher than those of their American counterparts, said Rachlevsky, who lamented the political turmoil that is a daily reality for most Russians.
"Unsettling is a very mild way of putting it. The optimism we had three or five years ago is no longer substantiated - it's a seriously ill society that will take years to heal," said the conductor.
Tickets are free for Radford University faculty, staff and students. Tickets for children under 12 and faculty and staff dependents are $4, nonstudents $8, and for groups of 15 or more, $4.
by CNB