Ray blends new, recent

For her part in this season’s Piano Spheres series, Tuesday at Zipper Hall, Vicki Ray offered what we’ve come to expect of her -- new music played with an ideal mix of acuity and passion. On a program of fair historical sweep, Ray presented three premieres and four 20th century pieces rescued from obscurity.

The best came first. Piggybacking pieces by Mel Powell and Morton Feldman, Ray illustrated two views of the strong-but-delicate aesthetic. Two characteristically concise post-serial Powell pieces -- the Etude of 1955 and Prelude of 1988 -- reminded us of his moving distillation process, making small gestures and forms count. Feldman’s special brand of delicacy sounded, via Ray’s surreal balancing act, enigmatic and dancing.

Opening the concert’s second half, Ray had the wise idea of following an aviary theme: George Antheil’s “The Golden Bird (after Brancusi)” (1921) and bird man Messiaen’s “Le Loriot” (The Golden Oriole), with a mercurial blend of stately material and flitting interjections of bird song.

Ray’s premieres intrigued, even if they didn’t always soar. South African-born, Los Angeles-based Shaun Naidoo’s “no man’s land” is a longish, nattering piece, moving from stern low range dissonance to vaguely tango-like pulses along the way, including subtle echoes of another South African musician, jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim. Jay Cloidt’s “Span” is serious playfulness, a reconstruction of elements and quotations from the piano traditions in blues (a la Otis Span) and early rock ‘n’ roll. Charming enough, it doesn’t quite transcend the tired post-Modernist pastiche syndrome.

Eric Chasalow’s “Due (Cinta)mani” quixotically blended Ray’s real-time, vigorously physical pianism with virtual electronic manipulations. It made for a happy electro-acoustic marriage.