The flute, says world-renowned flutist Robert Aitken, is both the easiest and the hardest instrument to play. Easy, because nearly everyone can pick it up and coax music out of it without difficulty. Hard, because playing it in tune can be especially challenging.
"The flute is the easiest instrument in the world, no question about it," said Aitken, a Canadian who has taught flute masterclasses all over the world, from Norway to New Zealand. "Every church, every club, every dance society, has a flute. It's a wonderfully flexible instrument. Parents think they have genius 11-year-old daughters or sons when there are 100,000 11-year-olds who play just as well. It's very easy up to a point.
"But then it becomes one of the most difficult instruments in the world. Almost every orchestra in the world claims to have a great oboe player. Not all orchestras claim to have a great flute player."
Aitken will turn his decades of experience as a professional musician into a weeklong masterclass next week at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center, starting with a recital on July 11 where he will share the stage with pianist Jesse Martins and Jan Junker, piccolo and flute soloist with the Heidelberger Kammerorchester, and concluding July 18with a finale concert presented by Aitken, Junker, Martins, and the 12 flutists participating in the masterclass.
What Aitken typically sees in student flutists is incorrect practicing techniques.
Flutist Robert Aitken / COURTESY PHOTO
"I would listen to all these flute players play and I would feel so sad. Because some of them don't play correctly. They were not practicing correctly, or they were practicing the wrong thing, or they have a teacher who is teaching them the wrong way," he said.
At the top of the list, he said, is having an instrument that is beyond the ability of the musician.
"Mostly they let the flute play them instead of them playing it," he said. "They look for the most expensive flute, the loudest flute, and they buy instruments that they simply cannot control. The instrument is better than they are. They blow it like it's a whistle instead of like it's a part of their body. That's a serious problem that you find often."
Aitken also focuses on training his students' ears.
"All a teacher can teach is how to listen and how to teach yourself," he said. "Because in the end you have to teach yourself."
Aitken, who studied not flute but composition when he was in school, has been honored with the Order of Canada and France's Chevalier de l'order des Arts et des Lettres. He was principal flute for the Vancouver and Toronto Symphony Orchestras until 1970, when he became a solo flutist, playing all over the world. He has made more than 70 recordings.
The July 11 recital will begin and end with selections from the standard flute repertoire, some of them not well known. Works by Franz Schubert and Max Meyer-Olbersleben will open the concert, followed by Aitkens own "Plainsong," written in 1977, George Hue's "Fantasie," a flute-piccolo duet by Diego Luzuriaga, before concluding with Prokofiev's Flute Sonata, "probably our most important piece," said Aitken.
Aitken has taught the Sonata for years.
"I used to teach it like a real Russian piece, right in the middle of every note," he said, referring to the Russian style of playing, which he experienced once on an educational tour through Russia where he was among a group of Canadian musicians who visited several music schools for children.
"It was amazing how they played every note," he said. "There's no way a Russian player will miss a note. They're right in the center of the key so they get a really, really rich tone."
But his thinking about the Sonata changed when he learned more about the composition's beginnings in 1922.
"He wanted to write it for (Parisian flutist) Georges Laurent (1886-1964), and he wanted to write it in the style of Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) so this made me think, wow! It's a Faure-esque melody. I thought, hmmm, I'm going to try to play it that way, play it in a lighter style. I think it's better for the whole piece."
CONCERT PREVIEW
ROBERT AITKEN. Recital at 8 p.m. July 11, tickets $22.50, flute finale concert at 8 p.m. July 18, tickets $17.50, at Glenridge Performing Arts Center, 7333 Scotland Way, Sarasota. 552-5325; www.GPACTIX.com
