Best Player
Moderators: Classitar, pied_piper, Phineas
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pahudfan87
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:02 am
Best Player
Who do you guys think is the best flute player right now? I would have to say Emmanuel Pahud. He a great tone, but the best thing about him is his technique. What do you guys think?
Re: Best Player
What?! I thought Phineas Henshaw was the best flute player around...pahudfan87 wrote:Who do you guys think is the best flute player right now? I would have to say Emmanuel Pahud. He a great tone, but the best thing about him is his technique. What do you guys think?
The "Best flute player" is very subjective and a matter of preference. I have heard top players play things I did not really care for. I have heard mediocre players play things that I really like. Even still, it all a matter of personal preference. My favorite flute player is a guy named Kent Jordan. He has great tone, technique, and some soul. The rest I listen to based on their performances.
Pahud is one of the top players around. I just do not listen to him much.
Phineas
Re: Best Player
I like Pahud's technique. I don't like his tone really. Not that it's ugly or something. Far from that. He's perfect in every aspect of flute playing. But to my individual taste he sounds a little metalic. I like a more rounded, more dark flute sound, and he just cannot do this. I don't know if I didn't hear him enough, but I think he lacks a bit of color changing in his sound, some flexibility I guess, but of course in the perspective of being a complete flutist as I mentioned before.
I could say that Sir James is the best, but I've heard so many flutists till now that I can't see anyone that I could say is completely perfect. They are all very good, near perfect, I know. But if you really can hear more and more flutists you'll see that all are in fact complementary to each other. An example of this is Patrick Gallois. To me he was the perfect flutist for many, many years. Try to listen his old recordings, when he was just a young european flutist beginning to shine. You will see what I'm talking about.
Farther, as an early teenager, my concept of flute playing was sinthetized in just one man: Auréle Nicolet. He was perfect! And he really was. He, as well as Geoffrey Gilbert, was the master of many, many great flutists who "spread the word" around the world today.
Another way to see this is that not always the flutist that appears the most, that sells more records, is really the best. I've heard recordings with anonimous flutists playing solo parts at orchestras that I could feel as the best ever. However I could not identify as being this or that one. He just sounded perfect and, at the same time, unique.
There are though two flutists, not really famous, that I see in the future as a reference. One is a turkish guy, whose name is Bülent Evcil. The other is hungarian and his name is Mark Grauwels. Those are the best I've ever heard!
I like also the argentinian Claudio Barile.
I could say that Sir James is the best, but I've heard so many flutists till now that I can't see anyone that I could say is completely perfect. They are all very good, near perfect, I know. But if you really can hear more and more flutists you'll see that all are in fact complementary to each other. An example of this is Patrick Gallois. To me he was the perfect flutist for many, many years. Try to listen his old recordings, when he was just a young european flutist beginning to shine. You will see what I'm talking about.
Farther, as an early teenager, my concept of flute playing was sinthetized in just one man: Auréle Nicolet. He was perfect! And he really was. He, as well as Geoffrey Gilbert, was the master of many, many great flutists who "spread the word" around the world today.
Another way to see this is that not always the flutist that appears the most, that sells more records, is really the best. I've heard recordings with anonimous flutists playing solo parts at orchestras that I could feel as the best ever. However I could not identify as being this or that one. He just sounded perfect and, at the same time, unique.
There are though two flutists, not really famous, that I see in the future as a reference. One is a turkish guy, whose name is Bülent Evcil. The other is hungarian and his name is Mark Grauwels. Those are the best I've ever heard!
I like also the argentinian Claudio Barile.
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fluteguy18
- Posts: 2311
- Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:11 pm
Re: Best Player
I don't think there is any 'best' player, though I do have favorites for sure.
Marina Piccinini, Jeanne Baxtresser, Jim Walker, Christina Jennings, Jean Ferrandis, Galway, Pahud... just to name a few.
Marina Piccinini, Jeanne Baxtresser, Jim Walker, Christina Jennings, Jean Ferrandis, Galway, Pahud... just to name a few.
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pahudfan87
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:02 am
Re: Best Player
I don't think this is very metallic...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeGcyPu-hNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeGcyPu-hNY
Re: Best Player
Indeed. I didn't say that. I said he is a LITTLE, at least to my taste. But that's just me...pahudfan87 wrote:I don't think this is very metallic...
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pahudfan87
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:02 am
Re: Best Player
it is true that tone is something that i very personal.
Re: Best Player
Pahud is shockingly good, but until I've heard 100 of the world's finest players I couldn't claim that he's the best (he is my favourite so far, though!).
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saxyfluteguy
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:38 pm
Re: Best Player
Emmanuel Pahud is an absolute beast and probably my favorite, but I also really enjoy listening to Carol Wincenc, Greg Pattillo, James Galway, and Denis Bouriakov. They are all great, great players.
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James_Alto
- Posts: 50
- Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2010 2:07 pm
Re: Best Player
I can't say I admire Pahud's tone at all. It's not just a bit metallic - it's completely metallic to me (sorry Pahud fanatics )
That's his choice of flute though.
Pretty much agree with everyone here: 'best = too narrowly conceived.'.
I'm a Jed Wentz fan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXhRHf1r ... MQ&lf=plcp
It's more to do with aesthetics: Bach never intended his complete sonatas for metal Boehm. Most schools teach us that the metal Boehm is the standard flute for 'serious' players. After leaving grade school, the world of the flute really opens up - the baroque traverso is a fantastic pitch - its' smooth intimacy is unmatched by the metal Boehm which was designed for louder volumes and greater dynamic range. It takes more skill to work a traverso with lipping and embouchure change than a metal flute.
The alto flute is also set at a transposing pitch - which means it isn't as shrill or earpiercing as the concert Boehm. Although it is metal too (can be wood = very expensive), it is more mellow and soothing. Alto flute players don't get as much PR commercialism as Pahud) and world flute players....although Eva Kingma, Carla Rees and other alto flute solists out there deserve mapping under 'best', just to blow those puny little Boehm C flutes out of the water
)That's his choice of flute though.
Pretty much agree with everyone here: 'best = too narrowly conceived.'.
I'm a Jed Wentz fan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXhRHf1r ... MQ&lf=plcp
It's more to do with aesthetics: Bach never intended his complete sonatas for metal Boehm. Most schools teach us that the metal Boehm is the standard flute for 'serious' players. After leaving grade school, the world of the flute really opens up - the baroque traverso is a fantastic pitch - its' smooth intimacy is unmatched by the metal Boehm which was designed for louder volumes and greater dynamic range. It takes more skill to work a traverso with lipping and embouchure change than a metal flute.
The alto flute is also set at a transposing pitch - which means it isn't as shrill or earpiercing as the concert Boehm. Although it is metal too (can be wood = very expensive), it is more mellow and soothing. Alto flute players don't get as much PR commercialism as Pahud) and world flute players....although Eva Kingma, Carla Rees and other alto flute solists out there deserve mapping under 'best', just to blow those puny little Boehm C flutes out of the water