By DAVID L. STERN

ALMATY, Kazakhstan - At its premiere in 1913, Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” an explosive and sometimes violent interpretation of a pagan ritual sacrifice, provoked brawls between its defenders and critics. So it was perhaps appropriate that the question of whether to perform the work became a contentious one for the national youth symphony in this Central Asian country.
“Many were very afraid,” said Tolegen Iklasov, 19, a violinist. “In fact there were discussions about whether we should refuse to play it.”
The musicians’ objections were not the moral and aesthetic ones that drove Parisians into a frenzy in 1913. They were simply reluctant to take on such a technically challenging composition. Having been raised in a Soviet-style system that taught them to obey orders and, above all, to avoid mistakes, they feared that they would fail - publicly and spectacularly.
On March 28, however, the 90-plus members of the orchestra - all students at the national conservatory here - successfully played the work in the conservatory’s main concert hall to a packed house, filled to a large degree with friends and family.
“We’ve come together,” said Daniyar Kadralinov, a 22-year-old cellist from Semipalatinsk in northern Kazakhstan, where the Soviet Union once conducted nuclear testing. “Stravinsky helped us overcome our differences.”
The catalyst was Jan Moritz Onken - a 30-year-old native of Wuppertal, Germany, who has created a minor sensation since arriving in September on a two-year contract as the orchestra’s first permanent conductor.
He has set high standards - too high, many said when he arrived - introducing more demanding works than the usual fare of Brahms and Vivaldi and increasing the orchestra’s number of performances from 1 or 2 per year to 12. For the first time, the orchestra will go abroad, conducting an extended tour of Germany in August.
But Mr. Onken says that he wants to change not only the way the musicians play, but also the way they think. “I want to produce arguments, musical arguments,” Mr. Onken said.
In Soviet orchestras, as was the rule for decades in the West, the conductor was a king whose word was law.
Mr. Iklasov and Mr. Kadralinov say what most impressed them was his way of treating them.
“No one ever asked us our opinion,” Mr. Iklasov said. “Before, they would tell us that we simply had to do it. Now the conductor tries to adapt to our personalities.” Mr. Onken is “more of a partner than a dictator,” he added.
Mr. Kadralinov says he was astonished when, after a particularly difficult passage, Mr. Onken asked the musicians who made a mistake to raise their hands. Then, instead of criticizing them, he urged them to shout “hurrah” as a compliment to themselves. “Now we have something to work on!” Mr. Kadralinov quoted Mr. Onken as saying.
Mr. Onken has his sights set on playing at Carnegie Hall in New York City in the fall 2009 season.
“I wanted to show that the young generation of Kazakhstan has something to show the world, even an audience in New York,” he said. “It seems impossible, but that is the goal and dream. To show the impossible.”