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Show Symphony begins The Utah Symphony's 1972-73 concert season opens Tuesday night with a popular program that even occassional concert-goers should recognize. Add to the music the fact that most of the new members mem-bers of the symphony this year are under thirty, and one immediately recognizes that classical music's appeal has no age barriers, either in appeal or performance. Featured on the opening program will be the Prelude to "Die Meister-singer" Meister-singer" by Richard Wagner. Wagner attempted in this piece to apotheosize apotheo-size the whole meistersinger movement, move-ment, which was a major force in the shaping of Renaissance music. ! Also on the program will be Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2, also known as the "Little Russian" Symphony. Tuesday's night',, ! completed by fhe ' by Beethove Cert' ,or reflects9 la, ness that was Beelh " Romantic Age. Be D of music has served, : its Ptically all ilM ' at posers since his time in P"se 'hat Symphony , M as one ' 'he grealei-.9 works ever written. w Both young and , ,ve ward to an evening 0,",d, tainment this Tuesda,,.ve nacle. The Symphony tickfl . ports, however, ,ha, . seats are sold f0r th c cert for the first tirneid of the Symphony. N , . ' ' . rli ' ,.i f , ' 'v ie. . D. 'j ' .'. ' '3' t,:f 'B - ' -. v17 : j, . t v-r '--is ' I ' 'ST ' I ' 'mi ' m ;,,, ai 11 11 ..i Iim MUUJU-L--fc--w-cl. i. . Abravanel at helm plays too much contemporary music". And my manager Gregory said "No he doesn't." "Yes he does." "Well, what do you consider con-sider is contemporary music?" "Anything past Brahms is contemporary", con-temporary", said the man. Being a leader means going where you think it is right and proper, but making sure that a certain proportion propor-tion of the people come with you. If no one comes, you are a voice in the wilderness. So what I have been trying to do is gauge how far I can go without losing the audience. My first duty is that the Utah Symphony stay alive, and it's not as simple as some people think. I can't be going out on a limb too much. And yet many orchestras can't believe the type of programs we give. So I am very careful really, and that's why I get away with murder. Maestro Abravanel Abra-vanel will discuss rock, Woodstock and John Baez in part two. porary music, have you had problems prob-lems in Utah getting Deople used to modern music? M. A. Sure, that is a problem all over the world. As my good friend Aaron Copland used to say, "The American public wants something new in every field, in the arts, in the theater. They don't care much for repertory; they don't want to hear Shakespeace again, or Ibsen, they want new plays. And in music' they always want the same works. Ridiculous!" But it is not ridicul- ' ous. When you have contemporary music, the language is new. I have had three presidents of my board who, before accepting to be president, presi-dent, would tell me point-blank, "Look, the greatest joy in listening to music is recognition", and they would make sure that I wouldn't go too far with new works. And they were absoultely right. Now you mention men-tion that I am a champion of contemporary con-temporary music, but I have been doing it on a very careful basis, two ways. One, chosing each work very carefully. I never choose a work that doesn't make sense to me. Two, I have those two specialized special-ized concerts (the University Festivals Festi-vals of Contemporary Music). No matter how much you tell them (the audience) that it is their duty to find out what is going on, but when they come to the concerts, they don't want to make that effort. And nobody can force them. We had one man call and say that he was not going to renew his subscription sub-scription because "Mr. Abravanel This interview took place on Sept-Tiber Sept-Tiber 29, in the elegant home of 1 laestro Maurice Abravanel.) : Don Graves: This is your Celerity Cele-rity Season, are there any works ' at you are especially looking for-ird for-ird to? ; Maurice Abravanel: I always love work I am doing at the time. )ft I am engrossed in the Beet-;.iven Beet-;.iven Fifth and Tchaikovsky's Sec-,.d, Sec-,.d, which is new for me; I've lver done it, and the orchestra ,s never played it. But when you i ked first, the one work I was : ing to say was the Seventh by trjckner. It is the work I am exceedingly ex-ceedingly interested in, because it be the first performance here. "m looking forward to doing the rlioz Requiem for the second le. D. G. You have a wide variety of )gramming, from warhorses like Beethoven Fifth . . . vl.A. I wish you wouldn't use t term. It is not necessarily orative, but it is a word I don't I mean, is "Hamlet" a war-se? war-se? Is the "Song of Solomon?" you wouldn't say those are horses; they are eternal works. : Beethoven's Fifth is an in credible work because the first time it was played the audience leaped to its feet. So it has been played now for some 160 years without interruption. D. G. How do you program? Do you seek variety? M. A. Do you know Goethe's "Faust?" He writes a forward and he puts the words in the mouth of the theater director. And the director says that if you give a lot, you will have given something for everybody. And this is my principle. I do have that first program of Beethoven's Fifth, and then I have Tchaikovsky's Second, which is new. On the second program, (UN Program) we invite foreign students; stu-dents; many have never attended to a concert. So for that I try to make a program that will keep laymen, students that have never heard that kind of music, interested. We have the "Fourth Symphony" of Mendelssohn, Scriabin's "Poem of Ecstasy", which is a very towering tower-ing work, very mystic. And then I have "An American in Paris" and the "Pines of Rome." But then, for the next concert, we have all Brahms. The "Third Symphony," Sym-phony," which is the quietest of all. And then the "Violin Concerto" which is also very quiet. D. G. As a champion of contem- |