Festival a showcase for flautists

By WILLIAM DART

Uwe Grodd is a busy man. I catch up with him 10 days before the inaugural Flute Fest New Zealand, which he is organising. He seems affably harassed.

For eight days, the University of Auckland School of Music is hosting a generous array of masterclasses, lectures, workshops and concerts, with flutes in many and various combinations. Grodd hopes for "many more festivals which will bring people from overseas with expertise, as well as that special personality that flute-playing needs".

As a flautist, he's a fervent advocate for his instrument. "Personality is very important. The flute is the oldest of all the instruments, apart from drum, and connects us deep down into our psyche and special self, just like singing."

It all started for Grodd with a walk in the Black Forest. He was only 13 when his imagination was fired by "a guy who was a wizard on the flute, playing Debussy and Honegger in this little Romanesque church, with those smooth, round arches and a unique acoustic that really draws you in".

This life-changing experience might not happen so easily on the other side of the world, he warns. "It's difficult for a New Zealand boy to go to a First XV practice carrying a flute. It doesn't exactly have a big macho image.

"It's not like being a pianist where you can hit the instrument with your fists if you want. I remember once after a school concert in Wainuiomata, one boy came up to me and asked what it was like kissing the flute all day. I told him that you get very good at kissing."

He lists the indignities heaped on his instrument. "The flute doesn't have much profile. Take our own Marya Martin, a wonderful flute player, and glamorous, too. She gave a recital just before she left New Zealand and had to share it with a violinist!"

I mention the egregious James Galway, but Grodd talks about Robert Aitken, Flute Fest's major international guest, an American who is Professor of Flute at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg.

"Aitken is not a toe-tapping superstar but has a tremendous integrity about being the voice of the composers he is playing. He has had personal contact with Berio and John Cage. The great Boulez consults him on technical matters, and when Robert last visited us in 1993, he brought wine from Boulez' cellar."

Grodd and Aitken launch the opening concert on Friday with a C.P.E. Bach Trio for two flutes and harpsichord, while on Sunday evening Aitken is soloist in a programme that includes works by Gaubert and Ferroud, along with the celebrated Poulenc Sonata - with a difference.

"This will be the premiere performance of the Sonata with more than 150 subtle changes to dynamics and the notes. This is a historical event and it will be wonderful to have this piece played by someone of Aitken's stature as we usually hear it from students and amateurs."

Masterclasses (details can be found by visiting the website at www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/flute) offer the chance to hear Aitken illuminating various key works, and on September 11 the American will discuss some historic recordings of famous flautists and play a recording of his composition, Berceuse - For those who sleep before us, in memory of last year's catastrophe.

* Flute Fest New Zealand, University of Auckland Music School, September 6-13.