In one particular sense, Béla Fleck fulfilled a birthright in writing his acclaimed banjo concerto, commissioned by the Nashville Symphony and premièred in 2011 – despite its tellingly, albeit deceptively, humble title: The Impostor. The native New Yorker and 15-time Grammy-winner’s full name, Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (“The torture started in kindergarten,” he once told Time), is for Bartók, Webern and Janácek - as if his parents, in referencing two folk-inspired and one avant-garde classical greats, somehow prefigured Fleck’s uniquely genre-spanning career, including this first solo-penned orchestral work.
Tonight’s European première features its author amidst the full might of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The strings of the orchestra also provide aptly classy accompaniment to the man many regard as Ireland’s greatest living uilleann piper, Liam O’Flynn, who’s also flanked by legendary guitarist Arty McGlynn and Rod McVey on keyboards, in a programme of his previously orchestrated repertoire, including excerpts from Shaun Davey’s The Brendan Voyage.
This concert is promoted by Glasgow Life.
The concert is being recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Thursday 28 January at 7.30pm.
