In honor of his 70th birthday (like he needs an excuse), the celebrated Irish flutist Sir James Galway (pictured HERE) performed a program that was half French flashy trivia and the rest, well, regular flashy trivia.

He can pile into roulades, double-tongue on his gold flute like nobody's business, and introduce program selections with the flair of a Pops emcee. But several of his transcription choices indicated that if composers want pieces to be performed on the flute, they would have written them that way.

The Concertino by Cecile Chaminade, which Galway plays frequently and rightly loves, had the spark and sweetness of true flute writing, plus the crowd-pleasing bag of tricks the instrument (as he plays it) can toss off.

Many years ago, when Galway was asked how to bring audiences to new music, the irrepressible Irishman replied, "I'm beginnin' ta think ye'll haf ta pay them." Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed, he will perform his usual virtuoso fare ("plus special guests and musical surprises") and introduce "Swing Song," a Boston Symphony commission composed for his birthday by Derek Bermel. With Leonard Slatkin conducting, Galway will be joined by a group of 30 child flutists selected from all over Massachusetts, assisted by orchestra members and Tanglewood students. Go, Sir James!