Popular Russian conductor Pavel Kogan will make his first appearance of the season in Salt Lake City when he leads the Utah Symphony next weekend in an all-Russian program.
Kogan said by phone from his home in Moscow that he is eager to return to the Beehive State and to the Utah Symphony in particular.
"It is very exciting for me to be coming back," Kogan said. "I love the orchestra, and it is very special for me to come back. I am looking forward to it very much."
Kogan has been engaged to conduct the Utah Symphony only twice in the current season. After this season, there are no plans to bring him back in the near future. However, Kogan said he would like to return to Salt Lake City with his Moscow State Symphony Orchestra.
"We are planning a big U.S. tour in 2006, and I would love to bring the orchestra to Utah," he said. "We are still working on the details of the tour."
The three performances that Kogan will conduct next weekend (two in Salt Lake City and one in Ogden) have special meaning for him. One of the works on the program is Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," which was on the first program that he conducted with the Utah Symphony during the orchestra's music-director search in 1997-98. "It is very symbolic for me."
The concert will feature symphony concertmaster Ralph Matson as soloist in Glazunov's Violin Concerto in A minor, op. 82. Both Kogan and Matson are looking forward to collaborating once again. "I am looking forward to hearing it played by my great friend and colleague Ralph Matson."
Matson echoed Kogan's sentiment. "I have a wonderful relationship with Pavel," Matson said, "and I'm also looking forward to playing it with him."
Both musicians agree that the Glazunov is one of the great concertos to come out of Russia at the turn of the past century. "It is one of the most beautiful violin concerti of the 20th century," Kogan said. "Heifetz, Milstein, all the great violinists have played it. I really adore (it). It has everything a concerto needs to have. It is violinistically and technically demanding, and in my opinion the shape and structure of it is of the greatest quality."
Matson added that the Glazunov concerto is one of the more challenging works for violin. "It's a very difficult piece. It's a big commitment for the violinist and a real treat for the audience. It's classic 19th century Russian in every way. It's a fiddle player's paradise."
All of the celebrated violinists of the past had it in their repertoire, Matson said, and several of them recorded it as well. "There are the famous recordings that Heifetz and Milstein made."
As popular as the Glazunov concerto was at one point, it's almost never performed today, at least in the United States. "It just dropped off the radar screen," Matson said. "I have no idea how that could be. It's a concerto that violinists love to play, and it's incredibly dazzling for the audience."
Next weekend's concerts will be the first time that Matson will be playing the work. He learned the score when he was in college but never had the opportunity to perform it. "I have fond memories of it in college, where I studied it with my teacher, Joe Silverstein. This will be my first performance of it, and it will be a real treat for me."
Matson said that the concerto was premiered by violinist Leopold Auer on March 4, 1905. "So the performance on Friday will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the premiere. I interpret that as an omen in my favor."
If you go . . .
What: Violinist Ralph Matson, conductor Pavel Kogan, Utah Symphony
Where: Abravanel Hall
When: Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.
How much: $12-$47
Phone: 355-2787 or 888-451-2787
Also . . .
Where: Val A. Browning Center, Ogden
When: Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $9-$29
Phone: 801-399-9214
E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com