Boston in Russia

There were cheering crowds and welcoming broadcasts for the arriving travelers. The Boston Symphony Orchestra came to Leningrad last week--the first Western symphony to appear in the Soviet Union. Every Leningrader with enough influence to get his hands on a ticket (12-40 rubles -- $3-$10) or enough money to pay scalpers' prices (hundreds of rubles) was inside the gold, ivory and plush Philharmonia Hall. Thousands of others heard the music over the radio.

French-born Conductor Charles Munch, his thick, white hair flying in the musical breeze, led his crew through Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony, Walter Piston's Sixth, and, in a specialty that every Munchian audience outside Russia has heard and heard again, Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No. 2. At the end, the crowd let loose an eight-minute tumult, only stopped temporarily when the orchestra went into a rare encore--Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice. Said a leading Russian fiddler: "It's the greatest orchestra in the world."*

At week's end, the orchestra went on to wow Moscow with the same program. Joining in the frenzy of enthusiasm were such musical greats as Violinist David Oistrakh, Composers Dmitry Shostakovich. Dmitry Kabalevsky and Aram Khachaturian. Said Khachaturian: "Marvelous, marvelous!"

* Actually, Eugene Ormandy's Philadelphia Orchestra--which has been billed as "the greatest" --had been invited first, but could not make up its mind to accept.

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