" data-original-title="" title="">Bela Fleck's appearance with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra took place at the very center of the two-hour program on September 27th. Considering this occasion was the season debut of the VSO—in its 90th year no less—the concert set a high bar for their future performances (including another such meeting of these musical minds the very next night further south in the Green Mountains at Rutland's Paramount Theater).

Reprising some of the work collected on Rhapsody In Blue (Thirty Tigers, 2024), Fleck was as circumspect in his playing as in his appearance. Dapper in dark clothes with a suit jacket that suited the formality of the occasion, his graying hair and beard set off his attire in much the same way as the precise sound of his banjo notes contrast the larger instrumental scope emanating from the orchestra behind and around him.

The banjo virtuoso made no attempt to call attention to himself via his understated stage presence or his musicianship. On the contrary, he deferred to the VSO in the early going, taking as much pleasure in his numerous quick contributions as his shy smile around the Mainstage and the whole room would suggest.

In fairly short order, however, Fleck's fluent, deceptively casual playing generated strings of notes both short and long that, interwoven with the larger ensemble at progressively more dramatic junctures, proffered a cushion for the strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Later segments found the master banjoist actually spurring on that varied complement of instrumentalists.

Such dynamic interactions recalled the latter's 2007 duo appearance with pianist/composer