OCR Text |
Show Maurice Abravanel Resumes Conducting TAGS There was more than the Gyisisual excitement when Uitdaurice Abravanel, 74-year-ot Hd musical director and con-bkitoctorof con-bkitoctorof the Utah Symphony, :8S tepped through the curtain H-arcrJid onto the stage last Satur-GS Satur-GS jlay evening, Feb. 19, in the AGS alt Lake Tabernacle, to con- TC uct a program of music by jut lustav Mahler. .. 9J" ' IT WAS the Maestro's first (jf inducting assignment since fjji indergoing open heart sur- L'"v;ery on November 29, and a Tiupportive and enthusiastic . , ludience promptly rose to its '. , eet in tribute to the man who '' has invested nearly 30 years in the Utah Symphony and 'guided it from its early, fal-nlering fal-nlering steps to the status of fll''major orchestra." till With one exception, lfibravanel's tenure with the . Jtah Symphony is the longest 1 0f any conductor of an American orchestra. AND IT was most fitting that the program should include two symphonies from the pen of Gustav Mahler, the Austrian who at the turn of the century was writing symphonies of epic proportions propor-tions that would not really come into their own until the 1960's and 1970's. It was Maurice Abravanel who played a key role in the emergence of Mahler as one of the world's major composers. com-posers. ABRAVANEL reports he is feeling fine and his doctors have given him the green light to resume conducting on a limited basis. |