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The Utah Symphony winds up a stormy season this week. And former principal guest conductor Pavel Kogan - whose diminished presence in Abravanel Hall sparked some audience discontent - will be on the podium.

Kogan won't be back next season, but he will conduct a pair of concerts in 2006-07, and Utah Symphony & Opera CEO Anne Ewers vowed the orchestra will invite him back regularly in coming years.

"This was never intended to be a stopping of Pavel's involvement," Ewers said of the change in Kogan's responsibilities here. "Our every intention has always been to engage him as appropriate."

The orchestra has offered Kogan

eight weekends to choose from in '06-07 - he gets first dibs on the dates music director Keith Lockhart isn't conducting - and is working with him to finalize concert repertoire. "We're thrilled to bring him back," Ewers said.

The Utah Symphony brought in Kogan as principal guest conductor in 1998, partly because his audition for the music directorship was so successful with the audience, musicians and critics and partly because previous conducting commitments limited Lockhart's time in Salt Lake City in his first season here. Last February, the orchestra announced it would not renew Kogan's contract beyond the 2003-04 season; at the time, Lockhart and Ewers said they wanted to make room in the schedule for a wider variety of guest conductors. But Kogan didn't buy it. He and his fans made their displeasure widely known. The furor revived this past February when orchestra members went public with concerns about financial and organizational problems, and some concertgoers mentioned anger over the Kogan situation among reasons for declining ticket sales.

Asked about his current relationship with orchestra management, Kogan replied, "With management, I don't have any type of relationship. I collaborate with the orchestra. I feel always that the orchestra responds with great pleasure and is willing to make great music with me."

Concertgoers say that pleasure comes across in Kogan's performances.

"The feeling he has for the orchestra, the orchestra feels, and they play beautifully for him," longtime subscriber Rachel Navarro of Salt Lake City said. "You can't help but be affected. . . . You know he's going to reach out to us."

Gene Pack, another longtime observer of the orchestra, agreed that Kogan brings out the musicians' best. "That's why audiences love his performances too."

This week's concerts feature Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 ("Italian"), the Grieg Piano Concerto with soloist Denis Matsuev and "Symphonic Picture" from Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," arranged by Robert Russell Bennett. "In my opinion, it's a very exciting program to close the season," Kogan said in an interview from Moscow, where he also leads the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. "All of [the works] are very different. The Mendelssohn is a typical example of his brilliant symphonic cycle. The Grieg Concerto is one of the most popular Romantic concertos, beloved by audiences all over the world, and Salt Lake City is no exception. Gershwin is one of my favorite composers and also very attractive for the audience."

Matsuev, winner of the 1998 Tchaikovsky Competition, said the Grieg is one of his favorite concertos. He has played it since he was 11. "This is Romantic music, and I like Romantic music," he said in a phone interview from Moscow. A big fan of the Utah Jazz's Russian star, Andrei Kirilenko, he said he looks forward to returning to Utah, where he played with Kogan and the Utah Symphony three years ago. "I had a very, very beautiful time," he said. "It's a fantastic hall, a fantastic acoustic, a fantastic audience - everything is fantastic."

Grand finale

The Utah Symphony closes its season, with conductor Pavel Kogan and pianist Denis Matsuev, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City.

Tickets are $12 to $47.