The man with the golden flute, a.k.a. James Galway, was in Oklahoma City playing with the Philharmonic this weekend. A friend and I took her daughter to see him. He played brilliantly of course, and his sense of humor shone through at the end when he addressed the audience. On the program were "Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in E minor" by Saverio Mercadante, "Fantasie Brilliante on Themes from Bizet's 'Carmen'" by Francois Borne. I am no critic and I know nothing about how to play the flute, but his fingers must have been flying. I could tell by watching him from the very top row of the upper balcony that he loves the music he is playing. At the end, he treated us to three "lollipops" - encores. These pieces were Brian Boru by Mr. Traditional, Danny Boy by Mr. Anonymous, and the Badinerie from Bach's second suite. It was a thrill to hear and watch. When the performace was over, he graciously autographed CDs, I bought one for me and my sister. NewsOK has a review of the performance.
He mentioned the music situation in the Church (which seems to be a hot topic in the Catholic blogosphere lately). He jokingly said "I don't go to my church anymore because the last time I went someone was playing a guitar that hadn't been tuned in ten years!" (Well, it was something like that). I'm sure he had no intention of getting in the debate, but it was an interesting observation.
