Celtic Connections

Chris Thile/BBC SSO

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Three stars

IT seems safe to predict that virtuoso mandolist and singer Chris Thile’s solo gig in the Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed Queen’s Cross Church will prove every bit as captivating as his charismatic performance in the similar environment of Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall a decade ago.

With the groups Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers or in partnerships with bassist Edgar Meyer and cello star Yo-Yo Ma, Thile has blazed a singular trail through everything from bluegrass to Bach since he was in his very early teens.

Now in his 40s, Thile can be excused taking a moment to look back, but ATTENTION!, his autobiographical “symphonic” work, which was the opening concert of this year's Celtic Connections festival, is an over-wrought and opaque attempt to make sense of that career.

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The capital letters and exclamation mark of the title are an indication of the difficulty. Instead of the relaxed mastery and easy charm his many fans know, this is a shouty Thile, demanding attention rather than earning it.

In performance, every detail of the script – as much spoken as sung – was not always clear, although it can be read in full on his website, for what that’s worth.

There are some basic building blocks around which he improvises – Pete Seeger’s Little Birdie, a chance encounter with Star Wars star Carrie Fisher, references to Alanis Morissette and Norah Jones, a cadenza formed on suggestions from members of the audience, a brief stop to sip a can of IPA – but it is a random scrapbook of reminiscences. It is beyond Thile to appear pompous in any way, but the presentation of all this seems out of all proportion to the material.

Of course the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Stephen Bell – a familiar partner on the podium from Proms in the Park – did a thoroughly professional job, but the orchestral backing to Thile’s virtuosity is often little more than big chords in different rhythms and the focus was always on the soloist’s lightning fretwork and picking.

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In the USA, ATTENTION! has had mixed reviews, even in Thile’s home territory of Southern California, when it has been presented as one half of a full orchestral concert.

In preceding the European premiere with sets by Carrbridge singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni and Danish trio Dreamers’ Circus – whose fiddler Rune Tonsgaard Sorenson had a brief role in the big piece – Celtic Connections director Donald Shaw gave Thile’s work a more appropriate context.

It is more an idiosyncratic piece of music theatre than the symphonic work billed.