Jane Rutter on Performance

By Daniel Sharp - Interview with Powell Artist Jane Rutter

You’ve spent a lot of time in front of the camera and have a great YouTube Channel. What advice would you give to an artist looking to begin a performing presence online or in front of the video camera?

I feel at ease in front of the camera because I’ve spent so much time in front of an audience! And I find a camera even easier in some ways…You should treat the camera as if you are talking to you best friend. Be natural; include the audience in your world.

There are two main approaches to keep in mind for YouTube (both of which I have incorporated in my YouTube channel): One approach is to be as real as possible and have as much live (fun and 'warts and all') content. The upside being that this can endear you to your viewers: they are able to see your authenticity. The other approach is to treat your YouTube channel as your own TV channel and mainly post very high-resolution, broadcast-quality material. I skate between these two points of view, because I think the world is interested in the real aspects of the performer. It is interesting to see an 'unedited' version of you in concert, talking about how you feel, playing outside, rehearsing, giving teaching tips, having fun in concert, dealing with diverse performance situations. But it's also important for your viewers to see and hear you at your most professional and very best.

Remember your YouTube channel is your channel so you should have it truly represent you and who you are as a flute-player, teacher and personality….

What kinds of performers interest or inspire you?

I believe that fine music touches us on four levels: Emotional, Physical, Intellectual, and Spiritual. Many different types of performers inspire me, especially if they connect these four levels at once. Alain Marion used to say 'make me cry with your flute playing- if you don’t give the audience goose-bumps its not really music…' and so I seek this in other performers: flutists, singers, dancers, violinists, actors. I'm impressed, of course, by fast fingers and a nice big sound, but when a performer really moves me, they remind me of the best of what it is to be human. Jean-Pierre Rampal had such great humanity in his sound (as did Alain Marion). It could make you swoon! Favourites also are Joan Sutherland, Ella Fitzgerald, etoile dancer Sylvie Guillem & many others. Jean-Pierre adored Fred Astaire- as I do. I love it when a performer can 'traverser la barriere' –i.e. cross the barrier and metaphorically 'embrace' the audience through what ever the medium. In playing and performance, I love musical elegance, combined with emotional honesty. It's about connecting with a fundamental truth that comes from the true heart-centre of the performer, and speaks to the listener. It's not about how loud or how fast (I find many younger players 'shout' through their flutes in a misguided sort of earnestness.) If you make a true, beautiful statement (of course you must have the technique with which to do so), then you will win the listener over for life. How incredible it is to have someone say to you 'I played your CD in the labour ward. Your flute was the first sound my baby heard when he was born!' To me that is a real validation of one's artistry…

When Jean-Pierre Rampal and Alain Marion played to an audience, not only was it beautiful flute playing, but every person in the auditorium felt embraced.

The declaration of their flutes was a sensual, passionate statement: ‘Come with me! You belong now – you are with me for this musical journey! Come with me, we are together, be reassured! I love and include you…’it is divine when a musical instrument becomes a fully expressive voice in this way. Both Jean-Pierre and Alain used to pick up their flutes in a lesson and play a piece – that they must have played a thousand times before – with all the wonderment of a child watching a flower open for the first time, with the sensuality of a first kiss. Rampal once said: ‘For me, the flute is really the sound of humanity, the sound of man flowing, completely free from his body almost without an intermediary… Playing the flute is not as direct as singing, but it’s nearly the same.'

Follow these links for Jane Rutter's YouTube Channel and website.

Jane Rutter: New Recordings

We had the chance recently to speak with Powell player Jane Rutter and find out more about her recent recording projects. Read more below as she discusses her two newest releases.

Tell us about your recent recording releases. How did these projects get off the ground? From what ideas were they born? 

Last year I released two albums:

1. Flute Spirit: Dreams and Improvisations (July 2014)

I always want to create an album of improvised music that drew inspiration from the following:

·         There is an organic, intrinsic connection between mankind and the sound of the flute.

·         The flute is the oldest instrument known to man- in nearly every civilization on every continent there is to be a found a flute of some sort. Anthropologists believe early humans used the flute when language was inadequate.

·         In Ovid’s metamorphosis, the flute was magically created by the god, Pan. Fashioned from a water-nymph and turned into river-reed, Ovid implies the Sufi ideal that the flute is a metaphor for the human, resonating with the breath of the divine.

Flute Spirit is in part a tribute to jazz flutist Paul Horn, (whose album Inside inspired me as a child). It’s an album of entirely improvised dreamlike, mystical & meditative flute music, on which I play - as well as my Powell - many of the Western Classical flutes & ethnic flutes in my collection. Nominated for an Aria Award (Australian Grammy), it represents a freedom of expression that is different to expression in classical interpretation.

2. Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Released November 2014)

My record company had seen a concert I devised entitled ‘Four Seasons and a Goldfinch’ and (after the success of my albums & film, An Australian in Paris and French Kiss), wanted an ‘other than French’ album from me, but which nonetheless allowed me to pay tribute to my French flute-playing heritage. They knew that my mentor, the inspirational French flute virtuoso Jean-Pierre Rampal, had recorded The Four Seasons over 20 years ago, so they invited me to put my own imprimateur on the piece. Also featured on this album: two of Vivaldi’s best-loved flute concerti: the delightful Il Gardellino and the haunting La notte. Is a fresh new take on the world’s most popular classical piece. Originally written for solo violin, string orchestra and continuo, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons -a dynamic, vivid portrait of the moods and activities of the seasons- is entirely suited to virtuoso flute. The result is, I hope, an album that transports the listener to a world of imagination. I was to a degree influenced by my French string-playing colleagues, with whom I regularly perform in Paris, and who have a very brilliant, virtuosic yet tender take on the piece.

What did you enjoy most about recording this music?

For the Vivaldi I loved the challenge of making the piece my own- incorporating some of the special effects possible on flute (as opposed to violin.) It was important to me to put my own stamp on this compelling, best-loved piece of classical music. I greatly admired the recordings of Jean-Pierre Rampal and James Galway, but also felt strongly that I wanted to create my own interpretation.

Alain Marion used to say: ‘Artists hear with colour, musicians paint with sound.” I found The Four Seasons the perfect piece to convey that notion. It contains such potent imagery. True to the Rampal School, I always play with communicative intent, with a narrative in my head and in my heart. The Four Seasons was one of the most innovative works of its day, and has continued to thrill audiences ever since. I remain faithful to Vivaldi’s original, and introduce new sounds and textures, which just aren’t possible on the violin.

To imply the chill of winter, the ice, the summer storms and other weather images, images of the animals, and nature, I used jet-whistles, flutter tonguing, subtle multi-phonics, and some multi-tracking. Unusual yet obvious choices, which work very well musically. Raymond Guiot Ancien Professeur du Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris, (one of my Parisian flute teachers) gave me the following testimonial just last week:

Jane est une tres grande musicienne et grande flutiste. Ses quatre saisons révèlent une interprétation personnelle ce qui est difficile a réaliser quand on joue ce hit de Vivaldi merci et brava comme disent les italiens!’ Raymond Guiot

(Translation ‘Jane is a truly great musician and a great flutist. Her Four Seasons reveal a personal interpretation which is difficult to achieve when playing this 'huge hit' by Vivaldi… thank you and 'Brava!' -as the Italians say! Raymond Guiot

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Sinfonia Australis: an orchestra of some of Australia’s finest baroque musicians including brilliant rising star, director harpsichordist, Erin Helyard.