MUSIC REVIEW : Conservative but Engaging Premiere : Robert Cummings’ Flute Concerto, performed by the Orange County Chamber Orchestra, is unoriginal but manages to steer clear of cliche.

In the world of serious contemporary music, where adventuresomeness and originality are defining qualities, where dissonance is the key, conservative composers are often dismissed out of hand.

Robert Cummings’ Flute Concerto--which received its world premiere at Monday night’s Orange County Chamber Orchestra concert at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, with Julius Baker as soloist--is conservative music to say the least. There probably isn’t an entirely original measure in the whole work; most of it could have been written 60 to 80 years ago. Yet it is an engaging piece of music.

The three-movement, half-hour-plus concerto is written largely in a Copland-like Americana style--though Cummings’ spin on it is kinder and gentler, less sculpted and wide-ranging--with healthy doses of Vaughan Williams-ish pastoralism and polyphony thrown in. The tunes--it has tunes--are simple and scale-wise.

Indeed, it is largely the simplicity of the score, the modesty of its goals, that steer it clear of cliche and sentimentality. The music has a feeling of spontaneity, almost of improvisation (one of the composer’s talents, according to the program), and it flows from idea to idea seamlessly. A subtle orchestration, for four woodwinds, harp and strings only, sets it all into focus.

Baker, a renowned teacher and former principal flute with the New York Philharmonic who is now 76, often failed in the outer movements to project his lines as a soloist should. But he provided throughout an ease of style and lightness of tone most becoming to the score (composed on Baker’s request). The orchestra, led by music director Micah Levy, offered supple, instrumentally detailed though somewhat untidy support.

Surrounding the concerto on this opening concert of the orchestra’s ninth season, which was shortened by half because of budget problems, were two orchestral standards, Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks” and Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony, No. 94.

As a rule, it is difficult for part-time orchestras such as this one to impress in repertory this familiar, and this was the case Monday in scrappy, though energetic readings. Balance proved a consistent problem, as in the “Fireworks” music where trumpets, horns and timpani overpowered all.

Nevertheless, Levy instilled a consistent rhythmic vitality and crispness of attack into the playing. His convictions were evident, and convictions are rarely dull.