Editing Jean-Pierre Rampal (section)

== ''L'homme à la flûte d'or'' ==
Rampal was the owner of the only solid gold flute (No. 1375) made, in 1869, by the great French craftsman [[Louis Lot]]. Rumours of the survival of the 18-carat gold Lot had been circulating in France for years before the Second&nbsp;World&nbsp;War, but no one knew where the piece had gone. In 1948, almost by chance, Rampal acquired the instrument from an antiques dealer who had wanted to melt the instrument down for the gold—evidently unaware that he was in possession of the flute equivalent of a [[Stradivarius]].{{#tag:ref|It had originally been sent to Shanghai, a retirement gift commissioned in the 1860s for French flautist Jean Remusat, who became president of the Shanghai Philharmonic Society; somehow it found its way back to Europe, albeit in pieces.<ref name="autobio">{{cite book | title=Music, My Love | publisher=Random House | last1=Rampal | first1=Jean Pierre | last2=Wise | first2=Deborah | year=1989 | isbn=978-0-394-56578-1 | oclc=18985910 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/musicmylove00ramp }}</ref>|group=nb}} With family help, Rampal raised enough funds to rescue the instrument, and went on to perform and record with it for 11 years.{{#tag:ref|His first performance on record with the unique gold Lot is thought to be the recording he made in April 1948 of Bach's [[Sonata in E minor for flute or recorder and basso continuo|E minor ''Sonata'', BWV 1034]].<ref>[[#Verroust|Verroust]], p. 32</ref>|group=nb}} In interviews, Rampal said he thought the gold—by contrast with silver—made his naturally bright, sparkling sound "a little darker; the colour is a little warmer, I like it".<ref name="bbc"/> Only in 1958, when presented during his debut US tour with a 14-carat gold instrument made after the Lot pattern by the [[William S. Haynes]] Flute Company of Boston, did Rampal stop using the 1869 original. After one final recording in London,{{#tag:ref|Thought to be Bach's ''Brandenburg Concerto No. 5'' with the [[Academy of St Martin in the Fields]]<ref name="autobio"/>|group=nb}} he consigned the golden Lot to the safety of a bank vault in France, and thereafter made the Haynes his concert instrument of choice.