Music: Step Right Up to the Great Culture-Kultura Bazaar

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Not far behind Hammer and Fitzpatrick came a parade of other Americans, hoping to sign up everything from the Bolshoi Ballet to dancing bears--so long as they growled in Russian. "Neither the American nor the Soviet government was prepared for the onslaught of interest," says Hermann. "Everyone with two nickels to rub together wants to be the next Sol Hurok." Many of those would-be impresarios may be disappointed, however, and it is harder to make a profit from touring companies today. Says Lee Lament, president of ICM Artists, which once presented many of the Soviet troupes: "With the rising cost of travel, hotels and union help, you just can't make the profit of 25 years ago."

The pace has been so rapid that schedules of major groups, which are usually established long in advance, have been altered and expanded almost overnight. The Kirov, for example, had already been scheduled to perform at Vancouver's Expo 86 this month. When the good news arrived from Geneva, the company was able to add Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Wolf Trap in Virginia to its schedule. Unfortunately, the appropriate houses in Manhattan--dance capital of the world--were unavailable on such short notice, and New York dance lovers will have to put on their traveling shoes to see a company that helped define classical ballet. Philadelphians are unfortunate too in that they will see the Kirov in the cavernous Mann Music Center. "The Mann Center is a disaster," says Nureyev, who frets that his old company may not be seen to the best advantage. "I once danced there, and a little plane could take off and land inside the auditorium."

After the excitement dies down, the cultural exchanges--so everyone hopes--will become routine. American audiences will doubtless give standing ovations to major Soviet troupes. "The Bolshoi Ballet will sell out as long as the world turns," says Niefeld. Cognoscenti hope that future visits will also bring such top performers as Pianist Sviatoslav Richter, Saxophonist Alexei Kozlov, Mezzo-Soprano Elena Obraztsova, and even Pianist Vladimir Feltsman, whose career was halted by Soviet authorities in 1979 when he applied for permission to emigrate to Israel.

American audiences may find a few disappointments. "Many of their famous classical music artists are dead or have already come to the West," Niefeld says. "By and large, the talent that's left over there is of less consequence than before. It isn't like 20 years ago, when the Soviets had a pantheon of world performers you couldn't find anywhere else."

At first, anyway, Soviet audiences and museumgoers will probably be shown only the most traditional aspects of American culture, such as its major orchestras and Broadway musicals. If history is any judge, ordinary Soviets, who tend to be more conservative than their American counterparts, may not like much new American art. Until lately, in fact, few Soviets considered abstract art to be art at all. One of the exhibits Soviet officials have approved, interestingly, is a selection from three generations of the Wyeth family, whose work is solid and representational.