Music Reviews : New American Orchestra Presents a Leviev Premiere

The New American Orchestra needs help.

Now into its second decade (the first concert was in April, 1979, at the Chandler Pavilion), it continues to present works that are ambitious and at times adventurous, yet the many empty seats Sunday at Royce Hall showed that it has trouble nowadays filling a large auditorium even with a free-admission policy.

Perhaps some listeners stayed home, since the orchestral segment was aired on KKGO. Two of these three works were commissioned and introduced some years ago. The third was a world premiere, which alone justified broader attention.

Bulgarian pianist and composer Milcho Leviev presented a 25-minute work, “Orpheus Rhapsody,” in three continuous movements linked by his piano in a veritable rifle range of moods, with passages of near-Eastern sounds, quasi-modality, wild Cecil Taylor improvisations, sometimes with support from the large string section. As the orchestra’s music director, Jack Elliott, commented, it was a most auspicious debut. The presence of the eminent bassist John Clayton, whose solo was a highlight, and of Peter Erskine on drums brought to the piece what little jazz content it could claim.

Ernie Watts was the featured soloist in Michel Colombier’s “Night Bird,” playing soprano and tenor saxes in a piece that reflected both Colombier’s melodic and orchestrational sensitivity and Watts’ eclectic soloing. One three-minute passage was clearly not Colombier but strictly a Watts happening; elsewhere, the brilliant brass and luxuriant strings set the ensemble in bright prospective.

“American Overture,” a square, unimaginative piece by Lyn Murray, seemed out of place on this program. Before intermission, Julie Spencer offered three of her own compositions, alone, on marimba, displaying her dual talents most agreeably. Next, Ray Pizzi, playing bassoon, led a woodwind trio with Mort Lewis on clarinet and Miriam Sosewitz on flute in a set of his quaint and quirky originals. Pizzi’s “Pussycat Song,” with its hopscotching leaps and bounds, was followed by “Miles of Joy” with its Bach-Fugue-plus-Miles Davis mix; both were played with elan and a sense of humor.