Golden Flute

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31568, 4 January 1968, Page 7

Golden Flute

Nazis proposed to send him into Germany as part of a French labour force, he escaped by hiding in the Paris Conservatory as a flute student—and emerged with a “premier prix.” Even so, with the liberation, he returned to medical school before finally giving it up. “I found that if you can’t avoid living with music then you become a musician. And I was lucky. With the popularity of the. baroque, all that marvellous flute music began to be discovered.” His busy schedule called for 190 concerts this year in which nearly half of his selections were from the twentieth century, including works written for him by such French composers as Jean Francaix, Andre Jolivet, and Jean Rivier. “I am somewhat restricted among contemporary composers,” says Rampal, “because I don’t much care for 12-tone music. Happily, I’m in a position to play what I like.”

When not travelling, Rampal, who is married and the father of two children, lives in Paris, rather poetically on the Avenue Mozart, a few

doors away from a bakery called At the Magic Flute. In that opera, Mozart wrote prophetically, “such a flute is worth its weight in gold.” Rampal uses two solid-gold flutes, one a century old and priceless, the other valued at $4OOO. He prefers gold to either silver or platinum. “It's mellower for me,” he says. “If you have a brilliant sound then it’s better to use gold and get more body. I believe that because of the differences between the molecules of gold and silver, you get more harmonics around each note on the gold flute.” As for the platinum, says Rampal, “It’s too cold for me —as cold as it looks.” The ethos of the flute has a strong appeal for Rampal. “There is a humanity about the flute that is unique,” he says. “For one thing, it is the oldest instrument, the natural instrument. Even today, unlike the violin or the clarinet or the piano, nothing stands between you and the instrument, no string or bow or reed or key. The music comes straight from the man.”—From "Newsweek,” by arrangement.