MUSIC REVIEW : Luck Aids Rampal, Ritter Bowl Return

Luck--with a variable climate as well as with passing aircraft--is only one of many elements with which a recitalist must contend in appearing at Hollywood Bowl. But when luck works, and is combined with the reliabilities of artistic control and good sound-engineering, successful concerts are the happy result.

That doesn’t happen often, but it happened Wednesday night, when Jean-Pierre Rampal--who played his first Bowl recital in 1974 before a crowd numbering 2,769--returned to the outdoor showplace with his longtime partner, pianist John Steele Ritter, and intrigued and gave pleasure to an audience of 9,245.

The weather was balmy, the performers in firm fettle, the program cannily arranged. Some nights, critical sneers are out of place.

Rampal at 69 is not very different from the Rampal of 17 years ago. His tone, especially in sustained passages, can be inconsistent--breathy or firm, weak or strong--but emerges, more often than not, perfectly acceptable, even handsome. His admired virtuosity, if at all diminished, is not notably so; the technique works.

Certainly, his musicianship--the elegance and authority of his artistic statements--remains potent and viable, convincing, irresistible. And his powers of concentration maintain the highest standards.

The program he put together, serious but entertaining, displayed variety abundantly.

It began with a choice, practically unknown virtuoso piece by Friedrich Kuhlau, the Introduction and Rondo, Opus 98a, and ended with Claude Bolling’s familiar Suite No. 1 for flute and jazz trio.

In between, there was some Mozart--a sonata borrowed from the violin--a Beethoven suite, and Bohuslav Martinu’s Sonata No. 1.

Though they started keenly enough, with each work, Rampal/Ritter seemed to become more engrossed in the music at hand. By the end, when they took a single encore, Bolling’s “Irlandaise,” they and their listeners seemed all heated up.

As usual, Ritter’s pianism, whether in Beethoven or Bolling, proved stylish, secure, resourceful, fleet and articulate. In all moments, he appears unfazed by handfuls of notes, unintimidated by changes of pace or emotional content.

Most cherishably, he seems perfectly happy in what some observers would consider a secondary role; connoisseurs, and Rampal, know the importance of that role.

In the Bolling Suite and encore, the participating chamber players, besides Rampal and Ritter, were bassist David Young and drummer Alan Vavrin.

Incidentally, this was one evening--there are very few--when virtually no passing aircraft could be counted. At 10:22, during the final minutes of the jazz suite, one small plane did materialize, on the periphery of Bowl sound. As these things go, that seemed barely to count.