Jazz & Music : Mauceri, Bowl Orchestra’s ‘Great American Concert’

On the way to its inevitable fireworks finale, John Mauceri’s “Great American Concert” at Hollywood Bowl on Friday and Saturday wrapped a pile of show-biz scores in the mantle of “E Pluribus Unum.”

To be fair, the evening did offer a few intriguing perspectives on Americana: Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos looking back at European culture in an excerpt from “Bachianas Brasileiras” No. 5, for example, and expatriate Austrian Erich Wolfgang Korngold dipping into Latino folk tradition in parts of his overture to the film “Juarez.”

However, particularly after intermission, Mauceri programmed one march after another, with Meredith Willson, Richard Rodgers, John Williams, John Philip Sousa and even Stephen Foster’s doo-dah’s all drafted for parade-ground duty.

It’s nice that Mauceri loves marches and it’d be nicer still if he conducted them with enough rhythmic flexibility that they actually seemed to go somewhere. Moreover, his rigidity often inflicted distortions on the non-march tunes included within a march-oriented suite: the lyrical “Till There Was You” from Willson’s “Music Man” overture, for instance.

Besides offering the first performance of the “Juarez” overture since 1939, Mauceri and the Bowl Orchestra ventured what he called “a restoration” of Duke Ellington’s “Harlem,” a splashy 1950 panorama-in-music for jazz band and symphony orchestra.

Once again, a lack of momentum in the conducting left the experience less like a tour and more like a slide show--with, alas, every hint of The Blues inspiring the Bowl lighting designer to color the shell a deep fuchsia.

Harmonica virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio brought superb breath control and exquisite phrasing to the Villa-Lobos and Foster material, plus a brief, sublimely gritty Sonny Boy Williamson tribute.

The evening began with music from Miklos Rozsa’s score for “Ben-Hur,” with Rozsa listening over the phone from his home and Mauceri extorting an enhanced ovation by holding up that phone during the applause.

Attendance: 16,875 Friday, 17,979 Saturday.