Lorin Maazel, one of the most vigorous and youthful performing artists in the world, celebrated his 75th birthday on Tuesday night. He did so with a program at Avery Fisher Hall – consisting entirely of his own music. On the stage was the New York Philharmonic, of which Mr. Maazel is music director. Conducting was… Lorin Maazel.

He has been conducting nearly all his life, having been a child prodigy – a rare kind of child prodigy, one who conducted. Mr. Maazel is also a violinist, as he proved (sort of) in a recital at Carnegie Hall a few seasons ago, with the pianist Yefim Bronfman. Composition has not been a focus of his life, but he has concentrated on it more in recent years. In May, Covent Garden will stage the premiere of his opera, “1984.”

Mr. Maazel had with him a slew of guests on Tuesday night, including the flutist Sir James (Jimmy) Galway, who came out before the concert began to give a little speech. He was dressed in a red velvet coat and a yellow vest. He was charming, puckish – Irish, himself. After cataloguing Mr. Maazel’s varied activities, he remarked, “That’s a lot to pack into one lifetime.”

Then the birthday boy began the concert with a piece called “Monaco Fanfares.” It has a fascinating origin. Mr. Maazel once lived directly across from the prince’s palace in Monte Carlo. And “I’d hear the fanfares played every day at the changing of the guard at 12 o’clock. Finally I couldn’t deal with it any longer, and so I wrote them down and then wrote a little piece … ” I place this in the category of, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

In “Monaco Fanfares,” Mr. Maazel takes those annoying notes – or at least over-repeated notes – and goes to town on them. He does so intelligently. At one point, I thought I heard the introduction of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Procession of the Nobles.” The whole thing resolves winningly. And Mr. Maazel – who says that he dislikes to conduct his own music – conducted with a very steady pulse, regally.

Next on the bill was his “Music for Violoncello and Orchestra,” which he wrote for Mstislav Rostropovich in 1994. Is there any contemporary cello music – meaning, music after about 1955 – not written for “Slava”? This is an unusual and canny eight-movement work, played during the birthday gala by Han-Na Chang, the young woman who is successor to Mr. Rostropovich, if he has any. Miss Chang played brilliantly, as is her wont. She is the picture of self-possession, all assurance, both technical and musical. A marvel.

The piece actually begins with an extended violin solo, which concertmaster Glenn Dicterow played beautifully. Then it gets quite jazzy – and principal trumpeter Philip Smith swung, superbly. The third movement (Scherzo-Fugue) has one of the most delightful indications I have ever read: “Mardi Gras-ish.”

The whole piece is a little pastichey, with touches of Copland, Gershwin, Bernstein. It is also a little mystical, a little New Agey, which I wouldn’t have expected from Lorin Maazel – not the way he conducts, say, a Schubert symphony (i.e., most rigorously, with a hard head, and no nonsense). In the main, the composer makes his disparate ideas hang together. The work has a “program” of sorts. And it is a worthy addition to the cello’s “concerto” repertoire.

I might note that, in all of his pieces after “Monaco Fanfares,” Mr. Maazel used a score – extremely unusual for this conductor.

After intermission, Mr. Maazel and his friends presented three pieces involving narration. The first was “The Giving Tree,” setting Shel Silverstein’s famous children’s story. Narrating was Dietlinde Turban, a German actress who is Mrs. Maazel. And the musical soloist was, again, Miss Chang, whose task it was to impersonate, on her cello, the boy – later man – who benefits from the “Giving Tree.” She performed her task with amazing credibility. As for Ms. Turban, she didn’t read as I would have wanted her to – but I have a feeling that she read as the composer desired.

After “The Giving Tree” came “The Empty Pot,” another children’s story, this one from a Chinese legend. Mr. Maazel’s music is duly Chinesey, with lots of gong. Narrating the work was Jeremy Irons, fresh from his Oscar appearance. Before he read, he donned half-glasses, which did not disguise that he is, indeed, a movie star. And he read magnificently.

There is a solo singer in this piece, who on this occasion was the boy soprano James Danner. (You’re not supposed to call them boy sopranos anymore – you’re supposed to call them “trebles,” but I disobey.) Young Mr. Danner is the go-to boy in New York when it comes to trebles (I have obeyed). He was recently heard in the Met’s “Tannhauser,” where he was excellent. He did his usual solid job on Tuesday night, negotiating some not easy intervals.

And the Brooklyn Youth Chorus was enthusiastic and altogether admirable.

Ending this program was “Irish Vapours and Capers,” a work for flute, orchestra, and two speakers, written, of course, for Jimmy Galway. This is a compendium of songs, dances – all things Irish. It concludes with “Danny Boy.” We also hear, in the first half of the piece, “I Know Where I’m Going,” for me indelibly associated with the contralto Kathleen Ferrier.

The speakers were, again, Ms. Turban, and the actor Dylan Baker. Both were effective. Sir James did not bring his “A game,” as Tiger Woods might say, but he was good enough. He can make the flute talk, always.

This was a long program, heavy on the narration. I would have preferred to hear one Maazel piece on a number of programs, but it is the fashion of the music world to overdo – to splurge.

One might ask whether it was immodest of Mr. Maazel to stage an entire evening of his own music. I don’t think so. First, how often do you turn 75? Second, the idea, we are given to understand, was that of Zarin Mehta, the New York Philharmonic’s executive director. And Mr. Maazel is a composer worth listening to.

And a musician, of course, worth celebrating. The “Happy Birthday” sung for him by the audience, at the end of the evening, was appropriately heartfelt. Mr. Maazel is an eminently talented man, a fitting contributor to the New York scene.