Severino Gazzelloni

Gazzelloni's name is inextricably linked to the avant-garde repertoire for the flute of the Sixties and Seventies -- such as Luciano Berio's Sequenza.  He was a star in the world of contemporary music.  However, Gazzelloni was also Principal Flute of the Orchestra sinfonica della RAI di Roma in an era when this extraordinary ensemble was the foremost orchestra in Italy.  (The orchestra was later abolished in the RAI's draconian cost-cutting.)  I saw Gazzelloni perform in this orchestra several times, playing standard repertoire.  His playing was something that every orchestral player could learn from.  Visually, he stood out from the other musicians by his total concentration on the conductor -- rarely ever bothering to look at his music!  He sat on the last centimeter of the edge of his chair.  And every note he played, whether the solo in Daphnis (which I heard) or a long note in a chord -- was for him a matter of life and death.  His commitment to the music -- both his intellectual and his emotional commitment -- was total.

By the way, he used a special flute in E-flat to play pianissimo several expressive passages in the flute's high tessitura.