Soviet Cellist Makes Belated Philharmonic Debut : Music: Karine Georgian, the former competition champion, returns an established fortysomething veteran.

There was a time when Russian-Armenian cellist Karine Georgian bid fair to rival her mentor Mstislav Rostropovich in the public eye in America. After winning the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1966 while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, she made her U.S. debut on a national tour with Aram Khachaturian, playing his Cello Rhapsody on a national tour in 1968.

But then in the culturally frozen years of the 1970s, her career developed almost exclusively in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and even her many recordings from that period have yet to be released abroad. As a result, she came to Los Angeles last year a virtual unknown for a joint recital at the Music Center with her ex-husband, pianist Vladimir Krainev.

Tonight she makes her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which sponsored her previous recital. The young competition champion returns an established fortysomething veteran, with the kind of schedule unimaginable 20 years ago. Even when she is not concertizing she must travel, commuting from her home in London to her teaching post in Germany.

“It’s not easy,” she sighs, “but it is possible, and for now I’m leaving it at that.”

She also returns with an unexpected, though not unwanted, vehicle. The West Coast premiere of Alfred Schnittke’s Cello Concerto has been replaced on these performances--also Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon--with Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto.

“It wasn’t my idea,” Georgian says about the switch. “Something about it didn’t work out with Temirkanov.”

“Schnittke is a genius, and this is the music of a genius,” conductor Yuri Temirkanov said through his secretary. “But I find that I need more time to live with this music before I can give it a good performance.”

In this case, the Shostakovich reunites Georgian and Temirkanov in familiar repertory. They performed the piece two years ago with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

“It’s not often played, not even as much as Shostakovich’s First Concerto,” Georgian says. “It’s very deep and private music, and it’s not easy. It was written in ill-health and not too long before he died, and I think it does reflect a bit of that--the way it ends, it’s a sort of farewell, almost looking into the coffin.”

Georgian has championed much contemporary music--she comes here in fact from performances of the Penderecki Concerto in Houston, with the composer conducting.

“It’s good to play composers who are still alive,” she says. “In a way, you have to do it. I like it very much, but of course, I’m not limited to it.”

In another way, playing the cello seems to have been something else Georgian just had to do. Her parents were both professional musicians; her father, in fact, was professor of cello for many years at the Moscow Conservatory.

“I started lessons with him when I was 5,” Georgian says, “so I had no chance to escape.”

She now knows the difficulties of adding a specific teacher-student dimension to the parent-child relationship from both perspectives. Georgian’s own 17-year-old son, Armen--named for her father--began studying cello with her, and has now switched to piano.

“I must give my father credit,” Georgian says. “There were moments when it was very, very tense, but I think it was much harder for him.”

Though she only had one other teacher besides her father, he too was a powerful authority figure. When Georgian herself entered the Moscow Conservatory, her teacher was none less than Rostropovich.

“He was great,” she remembers, “but again, it wasn’t very easy. He could be rather strict. One had to give 200% at the lessons. He sometimes insisted that you try the piano part also, like I did with the second movement of the Shostakovich Sonata, so you know the piece from the other side.

“I was prepared very well with technique, but Rostropovich wasn’t happy with my sound. He worked a lot on producing a fullness of sound, while being natural and relaxed.”

Rostropovich also contributed to Georgian’s sound in a very material way--she got her Pietro Guarneri instrument from him.

It was while studying with Rostropovich that she won the Tchaikovsky competition, which launched her career.

“It really started then, with all the possibilities that came from the competition,” she says. “I still remember the wonderful jury--Rostropovich, Piatigorsky, Fournier, Cassado--it was very interesting and very precious.”

Georgian still plays concerts in the Soviet Union, and in fact was supposed to go there now, for concerts celebrating the Tchaikovsky sesquicentennial. But the troubled situation in the Soviet Union has deterred her visit.

“The sense of freedom in traveling there, obviously, is uncomparable to the way it was. But now, the first priority is to get food, then you go to concerts. It’s not good.”

Georgian has lived in London since 1980, a move which greatly complicated her life, though she has no regrets.

“It was very complex decision, for both personal and professional reasons. It wasn’t easy, but times change and sometimes you just feel your life must too.”