A TRIBUTE TO Jean-Pierre Rampal
by Peter Griffiths

I interviewed Jean-Pierre Rampal in London twice for BBC Radio, once in 1981 and again for a full-length radio profile of him in 1984. I was struck a) by his openness and generosity, and b) by his apparent lack of ego.

For a musician with such achievements to boast of it was obvious that the music itself and the joy of communicating through it came before any consideration of himself. "Virtuosity is not enough by itself," he explained, "you must have the sound, the sonorite, and the love of what is being played." I saw him play a number of times in the London concert halls, and the vivid impression that remains, aside from his technical brilliance, is of the sweetness of his upper register, his delicacy or phrasing, the breadth of his dynamic range, and the sheer amount of musical ideas flying around in any one performance when he was playing at his best.

I also saw a masterclass he gave at the Royal College of Music. He was trying to describe as best as he could to one student just how the slow movement of the Poulenc flute sonata, which was written specially for him, might best be interpreted. Having reached the limits of his verbal description he revealed that Poulenc had once confessed to him that the slow movement was conceived as "how shall we say it, a naughty dream, something erotic." He seemed mildy embarrassed at the thought, which had been greeted by a ripple of amusement around the lecture hall, but felt it important enough an insight musically to mention. Rather than explain further, he then raised his flute to his lips and played a lengthy passage of the movement unaccompanied, offering it up as a delicious and sensuous musical fantasy. The poor student could not match that, of course, but may well have gone away, as I and others did, with a changed idea of the piece, and a more vivid and lasting impression in the mind about how it might be played thereafter.
For Rampal, the music was the thing, and not the glamour of the performer's moment in public.

Peter Griffiths is Executive Producer, BBC Radio (London).