Mancini: Complex Scores and Rock ‘n’ Roll

Giving Henry Mancini an orchestra as good as the Los Angeles Philharmonic is like giving a kid a week’s worth of free passes to Disneyland. On Friday at the Hollywood Bowl, the composer/conductor made the most of the opportunity with a colorful collection of compositions and orchestrations.

Some of the music--a “rock ‘n’ roll” medley, for example--was silly, throwaway stuff.

But even the more superficially frothy stuff was handled with grace and humor by Mancini, a conductor who clearly does not believe in flapping his arms unnecessarily.

The few items that transcended the “evening at the pops” were worth the price of admission. The first was a set of cues from Mancini’s fascinatingly complex score for the film “Glass Menagerie.” The second was a gorgeous exchange with tenor saxophonist Ray Pizzi on “Days of Wine and Roses”--one that virtually defined the subtle romanticism of Mancini’s music.