Impressive start for New West

To its credit, the still-young New West Symphony opened its eighth season not with a traditional romantic bang, but with the soft, insinuating sea foam of Debussy’s “La Mer.” Brasher sounds ended the concert, with the slow-mo crescendo of “Bolero” framing a Ravel-heavy French program heard Saturday at Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks (the symphony also performed at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center on Friday).

Increasingly a contender on the West Coast symphony scene, this impressive ensemble, led with lucid strength by Boris Brott, hasn’t always managed to steer clear of the standards. But here was a case of a special-interest concert program that worked, built around the rare treat of hearing Ravel’s masterful piano concertos back to back, and played by a musician clearly in his game.

Pianist Christopher O’Riley has been in Ventura County before, in the intimate dimensions of the Ventura Chamber Music Festival, but his New West debut demonstrated sensitivity and flourish in an orchestral setting.

One challenge in the Concerto in D for left hand alone, the emotionally darker of the two Ravel concertos, is giving due dramatic heft, and sometimes technical overtime, to a hand normally relegated to a supportive role. O’Riley rose to the task well, especially in the final, sweeping cadenza.

He also brought the right stuff to the breezier, jazzier Concerto in G, while respecting the hushed lyricism of its bittersweet, lush adagio movement.

Saddled with kitsch potential, “Bolero” arrived with added pressure to provide intelligent interpretation. Brott and company did that, plotting an easy-does-it path until abandon at last reared her clangorous head.