mf@cornell.UUCP (Michael Fingerhut) (04/19/84)
I heard Zamfir (Georgiu?) in the Eglise de la Madeleine in Paris, last
year. He played on various Pan Flutes, some having as many as 24 pipes,
I believe, and the programme mainly included classical music, accompanied
by organ (sic, or rather: sick). He is Rumanian and is considered a vir-
tuoso of the instrument(s). His ego is certainly as high as his (deserved???)
reputation -- you really had to be there: he stood close to the console
of the organ, which is high up above the portals, illuminated by a single light
spot in an otherwise dark church, and used the setting to his advantage,
with a lot of histrionics, rather ridiculously, I'm afraid.
The classical part of the programme, which consisted of various
pieces from Bach on adapted for this rather baroque pairing was very
poor: bad rhythms, bad intonations (read: lots of wrong notes. How noticeable
this is in Bach's music!). The second half consisted of Rumanian folk music, in
which he was considerably better -- this is perhaps the area in which
he got his reputation -- the musical requirements being altogether different
from those needed for classical music. This latter part, on the other hand,
seemed to us rather monotonous -- same tunes, same rhythms.
By the way, he does use his first name -- at least it appeared both in
the posters advertising the concert and in the programme notes. I'm not
sure that I remember it correctly.