Unsung Works Get Mancini Institute Spotlight

One of the pleasures of the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra concerts is the way in which unheralded compositions often take center stage. Saturday night’s program at UCLA’s Royce Hall, for example, featured two major works: Brad Dechter’s “Three Dedications for Piano & Orchestra” (featuring pianist Michael Lang) and Manny Albam’s “Concerto for Jazz Alto” (with Bud Shank performing the alto saxophone passages).

Each piece had its attractive moments. Dechter, a Hollywood composer who has received two Emmy nominations for his arranging work on “Moonlighting,” offered some attractive orchestral scoring in his work, and Lang’s soloing--especially in an improvised cadenza passage--was first-rate. Albam’s Concerto, which also used the orchestra effectively, provided plenty of room for Shank’s slippery alto style to roam freely.

But the most intriguing composition of the evening was “From the City to the Sanctuary,” written by HMI composer-participant Hanne Moller from Denmark, receiving its world premiere. In a welcome change from some of the program’s other, more texturally oriented works, Moller’s piece offered some appealing melodic passages, and her manipulation of orchestral timbres was done with a sensitive ear for contrasting layers of sound.

Equally pleasing, in a far different fashion, was Jerry Goldsmith’s group of selections from his score for the film “Planet of the Apes.” Generating all sorts of buzzing, growling and whirring sounds from the orchestra, it was both an entertaining experience for the audience and a technically demanding workout for the HMI Orchestra’s young players.

Among the evening’s other pieces, Goldsmith’s “Fireworks” and Claus Ogermann’s “Symphonic Dances, First Movement” were well-crafted exercises by two masters of orchestration, their performances occasionally revealing the need for a bit more detailed rehearsal by the orchestra. And student composer Brendan McMullin’s “You Gotta Be Like This” was most convincing when it got past attempts, early in the work, to create riff-like passages for the orchestra.