Last night in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, legendary flutist Sir James Galway shared the stage with the National Symphony Orchestra in a pleasing, if brief, concert. Galway is one of the few stars of classical music who has attained true celebrity status outside of the concert hall. In fact, his forays into popular music and crowd-pleasing stunts may cause some highbrow critics to look down their noses. That hardly matters to his fans, including serious flutists like one very close to me, who still calls Galway the greatest living flutist. Considering the appeal of Galway’s name, I was surprised to see as many empty seats last night as I did.

Galway fans probably came to the concert to hear him play the second flute concerto of Mozart (D major, K. 314), a favorite among flutists and 20 minutes of pure joy. At 66 years old, grayer in the hair and broader at the belt, the Belfast-born Galway was still able to dazzle with his fingerwork, especially in the flashy cadenzas (not the standard ones, so he may have written them himself but those composed by Johannes Donjon, a flutist in the Paris Opera orchestra), silvery cascades of notes in utterly smooth legato or impossibly well delineated staccato. With his playful smile and his mesmerizing way of inviting the audience into the music, he made this virtuosic performance seem effortless.

The tone is perhaps not as flawlessly perfect as it was in his younger years, with slight airiness or breaks appearing at times, but it was still a joy to hear. Slight discombobulations of tempo were a minor distraction in what was generally capable work in the orchestra. When Galway reappeared for an encore, there was only one thing he possibly could have played, a schmaltzy arrangement of the favorite tune “Danny Boy,” soaring up to a sigh-inducing and pristine high A, near the top of the flute’s range. It made me Oirish eyes weep, it did.