Music: Villa-Lobos Takes a Trip

"Having been invited many times . . . to realize over there, under my own conducting, some concerts with my symphonic works, I am now organizing the respective plan. . . ." In other, less fancy words: Latin America's most famous composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, would like to visit Los Angeles and conduct the Janssen Symphony Orchestra in a concert of his own compositions.

It was easier said than done. State Department officials having heard that the Brazilian wanted to bring a female companion with him stalled over granting the necessary priorities. Conductor Werner Janssen fumed. So did the Brazilian Consul at Los Angeles. So did the Southern California Council on Inter-American Relations. Finally, at 2 o'clock on the day he was scheduled to arrive, Pan American Airways made an extra place on the plane, and Villa-Lobos and the lady were on the way. When they got to Los Angeles last week, a nervous official welcoming delegation was relieved when Villa-Lobos calmly introduced his wife.

Swarthy, dark-eyed Villa-Lobos got there too late for a party at Walt Disney's (it was held anyhow), but not too late for an honorary LL.D. degree from Occidental College and a luncheon at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

He rehearsed the Janssen Symphony within an inch of its life. ("The orchestra is magnifique," he apologized, ''the best with which I have played my music. But for myself who am not a conductor, I need more time.") He held three extra percussion rehearsals with eight drummers, ordered a special Portuguese rattle constructed (at Universal studios) at a cost of $100. When the orchestra finally swung into the sultry rhythms of his Sinfonia No. 2, Rudepóema and Chóros No. 6, Los Angeles decided that it was worth all the trouble.