FIRST OFF . . .

Mstislav Rostropovich, the exiled Soviet cellist and conductor, has accepted an invitation to return to his homeland for the first time in 16 years and will make a February tour with his National Symphony Orchestra, he announced Wednesday in Washington. “This invitation by itself is a major step,” he said. “I do not feel hurt that not all things are done overnight. It gives me the moral right to allow myself to go there.” He reiterated that he and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, will not seek to return to the Soviet Union permanently unless their citizenship is reinstated and an official explanation of their exile is made public. Plans call for two concerts in Moscow and two in Leningrad in early February, after the orchestra’s tour of Japan. Rostropovich said two works he would like to perform in the Soviet Union are the Dvorak Cello Concerto and the Fifth Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich, who was his friend and mentor.