MAKING MUSIC FOR BOLSHOI--SOUND OF <i> GLASNOST</i> IN PIT

Soviet citizen and Moscow resident Anatoli Valetniy, a seasoned world traveler, is visiting Los Angeles for the first time this month. But hardly as a tourist.

Principal double-bassist of the Bolshoi Orchestra in Moscow, Valetniy is one of 11 orchestral principals traveling with the Bolshoi Ballet in its nine-week cross-country tour this summer.

What have been Valetniy’s first impressions of Los Angeles--seen, admittedly, from the perspective of one who has been spending most of his evenings and many of his days in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center?

“Overwhelming,” says the small and intense 50-year-old musician, through the translative help of a fellow member of the pit orchestra, referring to the experience of making music with his American colleagues. “And . . . ,” after a dramatic pause, this time mentioning all the “kind people” he has met here this month, “absolutely the best!”

Through one of his 66 American colleagues, cellist Armen Ksajikian (who grew up in Russia and now lives in Los Angeles), the veteran bassist gives variants on that theme. So many variants that a conversation begun halfway through a rehearsal break at the orchestra’s first run-through of “Raymonda” on Wednesday morning continued several minutes after the break had ended. Valetniy is enthusiastic about being here, grateful about being hosted by his fellow orchestra members in their homes, excited about the promise of, maybe next week, visiting some tourist attractions.

He explains that, from his previous American visits--in the mid-1970s, as a member of the touring Bolshoi Opera and, later, of the U.S.S.R. Symphony--he still has friends, contacts and correspondents.

“We have made friends on all of our tours,” Valetniy says. “Some are colleagues, with whom we exchange ideas, information, scores, music and records. Others are just plain friends we discuss things with. Even politics, of course.

“I correspond with people I have met on tour in West Germany, in Australia, and in New York and Atlanta, too.”

He has been making friends in Los Angeles this month, and repeats that he feels “overwhelmed by the kindness of people--in the human aspects and in the professional aspects.”

This tour is slightly different for him, he notes. On previous visits, the artists had little leeway for personal travel--”We would get on the bus and go to the next performance, then get on the bus and go to the next town.” He says he feels “a lot more freedom this time.”

Accepting social invitations, “being free to go anywhere, and even to say anything,” is the rule on this tour, Valetniy claims.

Concertmaster Yuri Torchinsky, 32, has no basis of comparison, for he is a relative newcomer to the ranks of the Bolshoi playing staff, having joined the Moscow orchestra in 1979. But he says he has been made to feel very welcome in this country, and he has nothing but praise for his American colleagues.

“There are no problems with the playing, or with our working together--we find here a very high level of musicianship,” Torchinsky says. What about communicating, when most of the Soviets speak little English and the locals usually know no Russian?

That is also “no problem,” the concertmaster claims. “If we need to tell them something,” he says, through an interpreter, “we find a way.”

And the benefits of having a dozen principals of the orchestra--the 12th being Dmitri Kotov, the company’s chief rehearsal pianist, in “Golden Age”--are incalculable, says Valetniy.

“On those tours when we cannot transport the whole orchestra, it is tremendously advantageous to bring the principals. When the players are of the high standards of the Los Angeles musicians, questions of style and mechanics are answered immediately. A great amount of rehearsal time is saved,” the bassist observes.

At the Wednesday morning rehearsal, with conductor Alexander Lavrenyuk in charge, things seemed to be going smoothly.

Lavrenyuk, a former dancer with the company who led the opera and ballet company in Odessa before returning to the Bolshoi as conductor, utilizes the services of the company interpreter, New Yorker Andrew Stivelman, but now and again breaks into English. After a particularly complicated section, he gently prods the players at this first rehearsal with, “Articulation, please. Intonation, please. Yes? Understand?”

But more often than not, he speaks Italian ( “Diminuendo, please, not mezzo-forte, piano “) or Russian, which Stivelman then translates. For instance, after a long pizzicato passage, obviously a solo dance, he explains, “For that, at every performance you’ll have a new ballerina. And a new tempo.”

Enthusiasm for each other’s work seems characteristic of the players at this rehearsal. After a long and difficult solo by concertmaster Kotov, and again after a solo by harpist Natalya Shameyeva, there is loud approbation, including stomping of feet and striking of bows on music stands.

Torchinsky is playing a violin from the Bolshoi’s collection of fine Italian instruments on this tour. But Valetniy plays a rented contrabass, the rental arranged through the orchestra contractor, Milton (Mickey) Nadel. Why couldn’t Valetniy travel with his regular instrument? The explanation is not short.

“What we call the Bolshoi orchestra is actually not one ensemble, but a pool of players. There are 250 players in this pool, and they make up the orchestras that play for both the Bolshoi Ballet and the Bolshoi Opera, which sometimes perform simultaneously, in two different theaters.

“This summer, there are four groups playing. We (dozen players) are on tour in the U.S. Another ensemble is on tour in Australia. A third orchestra--120 players--is performing at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. And a fourth is at home in Moscow, working there.

“My instrument and also the harpist’s instrument--or the instruments we often are given to play on while at home--are very large, and difficult to transport. Also, they are easily damaged. I think, actually, the bass went to Edinburgh--but I’m not sure.”