Music Review : Classical Street With Jazz Signposts : Milcho Leviev spices his Seal Beach program with subtle swing rhythms and bluesy accents, demonstrating the ease with which he crosses over and back.

Working the crossroads between jazz and classical traditions can be a lonely and/or dangerous business, braved successfully by few. Among the few, count pianist Milcho Leviev.

Though known primarily as one of the finest jazz players in the area since moving here in 1971, the conservatory-trained Bulgarian brings a distinctive stamp to classical playing.

This “other” side of Leviev was more or less the focus in his recital Thursday night at McGaugh School Auditorium, the second concert of the 20th annual Seal Beach Chamber Music Festival. The program provided a compelling portrait of the artist as an agile straddler.

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For the Bach pieces he used to open the evening, Leviev took a personalized approach, favoring wavering tempos and dynamics over crisp precision--hotblooded Bach. The concert’s token piece of modernism came in the form of a brief and quite compelling atonal work by Leviev’s teacher, Pancho Vladigerov.

Not surprisingly, Leviev plays up the inherent jazz connection in music of the Impressionists, Ravel and Debussy, often cited as influences on jazz musicians. Under Leviev’s hands, the music enjoyed subtle swing rhythms, bluesy accents and other jazz touches.

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Leviev’s own “A Little Old-Time Music” blended jazz-inflected harmonies with Baroque-like ornamentation. Later, his “Night Mood” included a playfully devious adaptation of the blues and a rapid flurry that slalomed around the key center.

For an encore, Leviev honored the coming holiday with a Clare Fischer-arranged version of “America, the Beautiful,” re-harmonized, turning a boisterous anthem into an urbane love song.

Leviev’s jazz instincts always bubbled below the surface, finally enjoying full release with inventive variations on the theme of Billy Strayhorn’s jazz classic, “Lush Life,” a stirring capper.