FLUTIST RAMPAL ANSWERS CRITICS

Life used to be rough on flutists, Jean-Pierre Rampal says. “The teeth are so important, you know, and in the old days, everyone had problems with their teeth. Flutists didn’t last long as performers.”

Times have changed. At 64, Rampal--with uppers and lowers still intact--maintains a busy schedule of touring and recording. But life now offers different problems. Some people, he suggests, can’t seem to cope with his immense success.

For example:

Rampal, the critics complain, has sold out, by playing such popular fluff as Claude Bolling’s jazz suites. Rampal, another group sneers, diddles with slick transcriptions and arrangements. Rampal, others accuse, steadfastly resists the recent interest in correct performance practice.

It’s enough to make your teeth hurt.

Responding to these attacks during a conversation from his San Francisco hotel, the unflappable Frenchman--who appears in a Philharmonic-sponsored recital at the Music Center on Monday --shows the indifference of a man crying all the way to the bank.

Of his penchant for pops, Rampal says, “I do more pop music because I like it. Whatever I play, I look at the music with as sensitive an approach as I can.” The Music Center recital, he adds, is filled with serious music.

He is confident enough to admit the occasional blunder in catering to his pops-hungry audience. Last summer, for instance, he played a program of Bolling, Gershwin and others at the Greek Theatre. The concert, he says, was “a bad experience, one I won’t do again. Musically speaking, I love playing (pops), but it is difficult to produce well. I had to perform all the time, which was hard. And the (amplified) sound was not good.”

Yet, similar discomforts didn’t seem to faze him at Hollywood Bowl appearances--also, naturally, heavily miked. “They are more organized about sound at the Bowl,” he responds. “It’s big, but you don’t feel it.”

Rampal likewise feels no discomfort in wearing two musical hats: as a recording artist constantly at the top of the pops charts and as a serious concert artist. “I don’t feel I am different flutists,” he confesses. “It’s always good to do more than you’ve done before. It enlarges your view of the music.”

To those who chide him for playing transcriptions in order to “enlarge his view,” Rampal staunchly defends his taste, using the opportunity to take a potshot at his so-called rival, James Galway. “You have heard his recording of (Vivaldi’s) ‘The Four Seasons’? That was purely commercial. My record company (Columbia) asked me to record it but I said no. Why should I? Vivaldi wrote 17 or 18 flute concertos.

“Our repertory is limited--well, yes and no. There is so much for the instrument, but there are so few major concertos. Some players have turned to violin concertos. There was an old arrangement of Mendelssohn’s, but it was very bad. Khachaturian asked me to transcribe his Concerto. That’s different, because the composer is living. He can give opinions.”

Nevertheless, Rampal did confess an interest in arranging Mozart’s Second Violin Concerto. “It’s not too brilliant for the violin, so no one plays it these days,” he comments, adding “You arrange what is necessary.”

Such a casual attitude leads to another matter taken up by some critics--Rampal’s seeming indifference to correct performance practice. Though his repertory is often heavily weighted with music of the Baroque (his Monday agenda is an exception), he has never played on a period instrument.

Once again, Rampal is unashamed. “Why should we avoid the improvements on the instrument? It’s too frustrating to play the Baroque flute. People back then were always complaining. Why do you think Quantz spent 20 years in his shop to invent one key? And then these critics want us to take that key off when we play pre-Quantz music!

“There’s a saying in French: ‘The costume doesn’t make you look like a monk.’ Just because you play Baroque flute doesn’t mean you are perfectly good. You can still play like a pig. And now, the instruments are so wonderful. Now we can play the leg off a table.”