Search - Jean-Pierre Rampal :: Art of

The late great flutist, J.-P. Rampal, on an 11-CD set

Frank T. Manheim | Fairfax VA | 07/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I agree with reviewer #1 about Rampal's matchless quality. But the statement that this 11-CD set represents Rampal's "life's work" is potentially misleading. This set contains many notable classical flute works with chamber orchestra. However, the majority were performed with a single ensemble, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra of Budapest, Hungary, under direction of Janos Rolla. In his lifetime Rampal played with most of the world's noted chamber ensembles, as well as with innumerable serendipitous groups - such as a Cape Cod Massachusetts ensemble composed of the Colorado Quartet with ad hoc players that included my professional violinist daughter!A search on "Rampal" in Amazon (classical music) yielded me 159 recordings. And these are only more recent recordings, including the St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Solisti Veneti orchestras (Claudio Scimone). Many prized earlier recordings, such as the noted series with the French Paillard ensemble, on LP records, have not been rerecorded on CD. Rampal was always on the lookout for unusual but high-quality repertory from the 18th and 19th centuries (only rarely performing 20th Century modernist compositions). He created some of the 20th Century's finest jazz together with Claude Bolling. A personal favorite for me is his discovery album of flute quintets by Italian-Spanish baroque composer, Luigi Boccherini, some 15-20 years ago. I could give no recording with this much Rampal with a high-quality ensemble less than five stars, but I feel there is plenty of room for more eclectic and artistically chosen connoisseur collections."