Svetlanov, U.S.S.R. State Symphony Back in the U.S. : Tour: The conductor of the Moscow-based orchestra says he hopes his worries over Baltic crackdown won’t show while on stage tonight at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

When conductor Yevgeny Svetlanov tours the United States, he usually has to be just as prepared to talk politics as he is to perform Russian music. After more than 25 years as artistic director for the Moscow-based U.S.S.R. State Symphony, Svetlanov, 62, brings the orchestra back to North America for its seventh time amid even more political turmoil than during previous visits.

“But this time there are hot points here as well as there,” he said, chuckling with a bit of irony. Svetlanov, who does not speak English, gave this interview through his translator, Andrew Stivelman from his hotel room at a tour stop in Sarasota, Fla.

“Of course, I am very much against the crackdown in the Baltic states,” he said. “But I hope none of these concerns will be reflected when I am on stage.”

Tonight, that particular stage will be at Segerstrom Hall, Performing Arts Center, where Svetlanov is conducting an all-Russian program sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

On the program will be the Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony and the “Classical” Symphony by Prokofiev. The young Soviet violinist Vladim Repin will be the soloist in Prokofiev’s first Violin Concerto.

“I guess he’s no longer a Wunderkind at age 18,” Svetlanov observed about Repin who has had a substantial career as a child performer. “But he still plays like a Wunderkind .”

Formed in 1936, the U.S.S.R. State Symphony is one of 10 major orchestras in Moscow run by the state. But Svetlanov observes that current political currents and reforms could change that situation significantly, and not necessarily for the better.

“Glasnost and Perestroika have not helped that much at all,” he admitted. “It’s a good thing that we can now play what we want, but economically, it has been more difficult for me because now musicians can get better jobs elsewhere.

“Unfortunately, it all comes down to money. In state-run orchestras, the salaries are usually lower so I have musicians leaving for higher wages all the time.”

Yet Svetlanov continues to be one of the most versatile and respected musical figures in his country. He has won several awards including the People’s Artist of the U.S.S.R. award, the Lenin Prize and the Glinka Prize as well as being the subject of the documentary movie “Dirizhor.”

He studied piano and composition at the Gnesin Music College and conducting at the Moscow conservatory. In fact, his debut with the U.S.S.R. State Symphony in 1954 was also as a composer, when he premiered his work “Siberian Fantasy.”

“As far as requests for living Soviet composers, such as Schnittke, people ask for them in Europe, but unfortunately not in America,” said Svetlanov.

But for Svetlanov, the biggest problem with touring with his orchestra outside the Soviet Union is that audiences routinely expect them to play only Russian music. “It’s the impresarios that usually determine what we play,” Svetlanov explained. “And almost all of the time, they request Russian music. We’d love to do something non-Russian, but nobody ever requests it. It would be very nice to play something out of the ordinary, that no one would really expect us to play--like Mahler.”

The U.S.S.R. State Symphony conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov performs tonight at 8 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $14 to $40. Information: (714) 556-2121.