Utah Symphony audiences have not heard a great deal of the music of Henri Lazarof in recent years - nothing, in fact, since the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 in 1979, marking the orchestra's first season in what is now Abravanel Hall.
Yet there was a time when the Bulgarian-born Lazarof was one of the most frequently performed contemporary composers in the state, thanks largely to the championing of his music by then-Utah Symphony music director Maurice Abravanel.Indeed, between 1966 and 1979, the year of Abravanel's retirement, no fewer than six Lazarof pieces were included in the orchestra's contemporary concerts, a total exceeded only by Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Copland and Ives. Not only that, but the orchestra recorded three of those pieces, one of them ("Structures Sonores") under Abravanel and the other two ("Textures" and "Spectrum") under Lazarof himself.
Now Lazarof is returning the compliment.
This week he returns to Utah for the unveiling of his "Three Pieces for Orchestra," to be performed on the symphony's opening classical concerts of the season Thursday, Sept. 21, at Weber State University's Browning Center for the Performing Arts and Friday and Sat-ur-day, Sept. 22 and 23, in Abravanel Hall.
In what Lazarof describes as "a most elegant gesture," music director Joseph Silverstein will conduct the new work (which bears the subtitle "In Memoriam Maurice Abravanel") along with performances of Beethoven's "Egmont" Overture and Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique." Then the Lazarof will be performed the following week by the orchestra that commissioned it, the Westchester Philharmonic, under its music director, Paul Dunkel.
"They had no problem with the first performances taking place in Utah," Lazarof says from his home in California, "realizing it was an homage to the old maestro." Along those lines, Lazarof remembers Dunkel telling him that he especially liked the music's emotional aspect, adding that "I think our audience will like it."
It is indeed "a very personal work," Lazarof acknowledges, having been born from his own emotions upon learning of Ab-ra-va-nel's death in 1993.
Abravanel died on Sept. 22 of that year - the same date the "Three Pieces" will have their first performance in Salt Lake City. At the time, however, Lazarof himself was in the hospital undergoing back surgery and, he says, "my wife tried to keep the news from me, knowing it would affect me further."
When he did learn of his friend's passing, the composer responded as composers often do - he hurriedly jotted down some ideas for a string quartet. Later he decided an orchestral piece would be more appropriate as a memorial, and work on that was completed the following February in Switzerland.
"Initially my idea was a single movement, `Lamentazione,' " La-za-rof says. "But finally I decided to expand it to include two others, `Preambolo' and `Finale.' "
Still, he says, the second-movement "Lamentations" are still the heart of the piece. "By that I don't mean a funeral piece, though. It's really my memories of Maurice, who was a giant in many respects, a builder and a giver."
For Lazarof those memories go back to 1965, when the two first met at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Calif. At that time Lazarof was on the UCLA faculty "and I showed him a score of mine dedicated to the memory of Arnold Schoenberg."
That same year Abravanel invited Lazarof to Salt Lake City for a week of lectures and seminars and a performance of that work, "Ode," at the University of Utah. And though in recent years he has been more closely associated with the Seattle Symphony than with the Utah Symphony, his friendship with Abravanel was maintained in other ways.
"Maurice was the kind of person that, when he was committed to a certain type of music or composer, had complete faith in that person," Lazarof reflects. "Even after his retirement, we used to talk about three times a week on the phone."
Accordingly, Abravanel went to Houston in 1986 for the premiere of Lazarof's Second Concerto for Orchestra ("Icarus") - an event that coincided with the latter's 54th birthday - and planned to be in Seattle for the premiere of his Third Symphony, which took place in 1994.
Lazarof has especially fond memories of the Houston premiere, "because after calling me onstage after the performance and bowing, the conductor, Sergiu Comissiona, said, `Wait, wait, wait,' and lifted his arms and conducted what he called `Happy Birthday a la Lazarof,' because there was a great deal of percussion in the orchestra for the concerto."
There will also be a fair amount of percussion in the orchestra this week, the "Three Pieces" calling for vibraphone, tom-toms, bass drum, tubular bells, cymbal, marimba, snare drum, tam-tam, bongos, xylophone and three gongs, in addition to harp, piano and a full complement of winds and strings.
Yet the piece of his Lazarof remembers Abravanel being the most moved by is a considerably more intimate opus, "Volo," for solo viola and 16 strings. "Maurice was absolutely in tears over that piece," Lazarof says, adding that it too was a memorial, in this case to his father, who had recently passed away.
But just as memorials do not always take the same form with Lazarof, neither does the rest of his music. As Nicolas Slonimsky once wrote, "What is absent in Lazarof's work is fanatic adherence to a system. In a very broad sense, his music follows the principles of serialism, but at his hands every note, every phrase, every dynamic nuance, every rhythmical figuration, all tend to some purpose."
The "Three Pieces," Lazarof assures me, are devoid of serialism. And lately, I mention, I have noticed a more lyrical, personal quality in much of his music - a comment he says makes him happy.
"I am a great admirer of Schoenberg's," Lazarof affirms. "But I have never been `orthodox' in any specific way of composing - it's not necessary for me." As for the "new romanticism" that has thrown much Schoenbergian composition into a shadow in recent years, he says, "I have nothing against any way of expression, but I have very little for either.
"Maurice once said to me, `I like your music. I don't always understand it, but I know there's a good reason for your having written it.' "
And this time the reason was to remember a friend.
Tickets to the Abravanel Hall performances are priced from $12 to $34, with student tickets available for $6. For information call 533-NOTE.
For tickets to the Ogden concert, call 399-0453.