AN AUSTRALIAN IN PARIS

JANE RUT TER AN AUSTRALIAN IN PARIS FRENCH MUSIC FOR FLUTE BAROQUE TO THE PRESENT FROM THE 2 1 La Vie en Rose Edith Piaf (1915-1963) and Lou...
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JANE RUT TER

AN AUSTRALIAN

IN

PARIS

FRENCH MUSIC FOR FLUTE BAROQUE TO THE PRESENT

FROM THE

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1

La Vie en Rose Edith Piaf (1915-1963) and Louis Guglielmi (Louiguy) (1916-1991) arr. Jane Rutter

3’05

2

Self-Portrait / Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un Faune – excerpt Jane Rutter / Claude Debussy (1862-1918) arr. Jane Rutter

2’15

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Les Folies d’Espagne Marin Marais (1656-1728) arr. Jane Rutter

5’48

4

Je Connois Mort Lucy Gibson

0’42

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Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un Faune – excerpt Claude Debussy arr. Jane Rutter

0’39

6

Afternoon of a Faun – excerpt Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898), translation by Alan Edwards

0’36

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Syrinx Claude Debussy

2’45

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She Charles Aznavour (b. 1924) arr. Jane Rutter

3’41

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Night without Sleep – excerpt Colette (1873-1954), translation by Herma Briffault

0’53

0

Berceuse Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) arr. Jane Rutter

2’58

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Allegretto from Suite de Trois Morceaux Benjamin Godard (1849-1895) arr. Jane Rutter

1’58

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The Moon / Clair de Lune Jane Rutter and Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), translation by Jane Rutter / Claude Debussy arr. Jane Rutter Gerard Willems piano

4’41

3

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Les Chemins de l’Amour Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) arr. Jane Rutter

3’54

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Salut d’Amour Edward Elgar (1857-1934) arr. Jane Rutter

3’09

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I Love Paris Cole Porter (1891-1964) arr. Jane Rutter

2’53

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Veloce Claude Bolling (b. 1930)

3’53

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Golliwogg’s Cakewalk Claude Debussy arr. Jane Rutter

2’47

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Harmonie du soir – excerpt Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), translation by Jane Rutter

0’22

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Krishna – Gamelan version Albert Roussel (1869-1937) arr. Jane Rutter Sally Schinkel cello, Peter Jacob percussion, Jane Rutter sequence programming, additional percussion

3’06

)

A Scream of Salutation from Paris was Yesterday Janet Flanner (1892-1978)

0’32

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It Ain’t Necessarily So George Gershwin (1898-1937) arr. Jane Rutter / Sean O’Boyle Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Sean O’Boyle conductor

2’51



Gay Paree Henry Mancini (1924-1994) / Leslie Bricusse (b. 1931) arr. Jane Rutter

2’46

#

Brave – French Party Mix Jane Rutter / Peter Bowman David Hirshfelder main keyboards, Peter Bowman guitar, keyboards, drum loops, Evripides Evripidou bass, Jane Rutter keyboard, drum loops

2’44

4

¢

Apollinaire Said Christopher Logue (1926-2011)

0’30



Scherzino, Op. 55 No. 6 Joachim Andersen (1847-1909) arr. Jane Rutter

1’42

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Galop: Le Cancan Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) arr. Jane Rutter

1’48



The French Song Edith Piaf / Louis Guglielmi (Louiguy) Additional lyrics by Greg Champion and Divishti Rankine Gaye Thomas bandoneon

2’30



Milord Marguerite Monnot (1903-1961) / Georges Moustaki (b. 1934) arr. Jane Rutter

0’49

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Bonus track Boléro de Ravel 3’57 Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) arr. Neil Thurgate / Tommy Tycho / Jane Rutter The Gagliano String Quartet, Max McBride bass, Gerard Willems piano, Brian Nixon percussion Total Playing Time

70’15 Jane Rutter flutes, voice David Mibus piano

Dedicated to the memory of Alain Marion and Jean-Pierre Rampal

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The flute is believed to be the oldest instrument known to man (40,000 years). It was used as a communicative tool when spoken language would not suffice. More than any other style of flute playing, the Rampal Flute Style, or ‘Bel Canto’ style, has a narrative approach. Played this way, the flute is a voice. The Parisian arts crowd has for years been searching for alternative voices… For me, music, language, poetry, art – indeed, the languages of man (also mathematics, science, wine, perfume) all flow together as one great all-encompassing narrative. This is one of the great artistic legacies of Paris. In An Australian in Paris, my flute speaks with the Rampal-inspired musical style of Parisian classical flutists. Its voice also ‘describes’ the revolutionary theatrical styles of the Parisian demimonde (stars such as Josephine Baker, Édith Piaf, Colette, Nijinsky and Charles Aznavour, to name a few). The Rampal School has philosophical connections with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Chopin, Bizet and Offenbach, and personal links to Debussy, Ravel, the French Impressionists, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Messiaen and many others. I am honoured to help keep its legacy alive.

% My catalyst for writing An Australian in Paris (bubbling along in hind-brain and heart for years, hidden from conscious thought) was the rediscovery of a ‘self-portrait’ that I wrote as a student whilst in Paris. This stream of consciousness piece seemed to connect me to the artists, writers and musicians of the

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Parisian Belle Époque and the 1920s. Re-reading it was a call to action – a reminder of the power of the experience, how much it had taught me, and how much it could mean to others. I was inspired to tell the story afresh, to bring it alive again in music and poetry. Self-portrait I am a gypsy’s spawn, snatched from the hedge as a baby and taught to sew a fine seam by my gentle mother. I am attracted by the intuitive, the moment, and magic. My mind is vagrant, my heart belongs to drum beats, the sound of panpipes, sunshine and you. I am excited by round shapes and continental drifts, fear in imagination thrills me. I liken love to an earthquake. My favourite smell is the scent of damp black earth. I love illusion: conjuring, juggling, the tricks of the circus, the spangled dresses, elephants sighing and the raggle-taggle crowd... I am bored by sterility and asexuality. I would rather make a patchwork than calculate. I hate regulation. I find chastity in decadence. I want to feel the walls of a painted caravan jostling me in my travels, to feel the green silence of the forest. I believe that once there were fairies and hobgoblins. They are now gone, yet their spirit can be found in the eyes and faces of some. I love treasure hunts and mushrooms. I want babies and want to run free. I am

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disappointed in spoken language and yet sympathise with its ambivalence, its voluptuity, its lack of precision, and its beauty. I lack definition and yet have a strong sense of my blood and the air that I blow... Zephyr is my friend and assistant. I am his apprentice. I would, when I catch my breath and play my flute, lull gently, tear down houses, whip up the waves, carry the boats, sing in the trees, pulse through others’ hearts, dry the tears and scatter the sands... This city of lights, cultivated hope and despair daily hands me the threads of my destiny Jane Rutter Paris, 1979 I go back to Paris regularly to perform, and to drink in the culture of the city. Speaking fluent French, it’s flattering to be recognised by the Parisians as one of them. I was a student in Paris for nearly four years, and recently I have given concerts in La Sainte-Chapelle – arguably the most beautiful chapel in the world – where many flute stars have performed. Marie-Antoinette (with whom I share a birthday) spent hours of devotion there; Parisian audiences always seem amused by my connection with the (late) French queen! I will always feel as did Josephine Baker: J’ai deux amours – mon pays et Paris! (I have two great loves – my country and Paris.)

% When I began work on An Australian in Paris, of course I wanted to communicate my story of Paris both visually and sonically, which is why I began the project with a DVD. But I also wanted this CD to stand alone, as a work independent of the film. Part of my inspiration came from the ‘themed’ epic rock albums of the 70s. I love this integrity: for there to be connections between all the pieces on an album. It’s the same integrity you find in an opera, or in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and it’s how I have approached all my solo albums. Albums from groups like The Beatles (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band), The Who (Tommy), Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells) and Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon) all have a story to tell. They come from a time when there was more space for listening in the world; nowadays, our focus is so largely visual. This CD (recorded independently of the live DVD, at the legendary 301 Studios, arguably the finest recording studio in Australia), is about lyricism, narrative and a love of the voice. It’s a grand amour which breaks down musical barriers. To quote Jean-Pierre Rampal, ‘Really there are no musical styles, 8

there is just good and bad music’ – perhaps an echo of the words of his friend Francis Poulenc: ‘Je suis un musicien sans etiquette’ (I am a musician without barriers). The album stands alone as its own story, with the musical pieces in an order that works as a listening experience, and flows in a different way from the DVD/film. Poetry and the spoken word are used as a balm to link and colour the pieces. As a child I was impressed by Debussy, his musical style imprinted indelibly in my brain and heart. Throughout my life I have sought to express this underlying current of relativity – whether it be in Baroque music or the songs of Charles Aznavour... The flute and the voice spring from the same Neptunian universe, connected as if underwater.

% La Vie en Rose I have always admired Édith Piaf, for her devotion to her work and her ability to (metaphorically speaking) put her arms around an audience. In this arrangement I’ve tried to keep the simplicity of her message, and have added Rampal-style vocal tenderness. The second verse contains ‘flutistic’ virtuosity which is not found in the original vocal melody. The florid repeat of the melody is reminiscent of the brilliant vocal lines of Bellini. Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un Faune A couple of years ago I was standing on the stage of Théâtre du Châtelet and I had to pinch myself: there I was on the actual spot where Nijinsky first danced L’Après-midi d’un Faune for the Ballets Russes! In that moment I was transported back in time. The ghosts of past Parisian artists are so alive. They are my life-long companions. The prose I wrote at a young age whilst in Paris, combined with that wonderful piece of music, sums up much of my love affair with the city. Les Folies d’Espagne Je connois mort Australian poet Lucy Gibson is a great friend of mine. Lucy sent me this poem a few years ago (when I had begun to write An Australian in Paris). It is a lovely epilogue to Marin Marais’s Folies d’Espagne: a dark, elegant poem which conjures up medieval Paris, the city where wolves fed on the dead bodies thrown nightly over its walls. The title Je connois mort is a tribute to the medieval Parisian poet, thief, (accused murderer!) and scholar, François Villon, whose Ballade des menus propos (Ballad of minor matters) ends with the lines:

I know Death, which consumes all, I know everything, except for myself.

Je connois mort qui tout consomme, Je connois tout, fors que moi-mêmes. 9

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Syrinx This is a signature piece for flutists. It was originally written as incidental music to the play Psyché by Gabriel Mourey, and was directed to be played offstage. It is a musical representation of the story of Pan and the water nymph, Syrinx, who was transformed by her sisters into a water reed in order to escape the unwanted attentions of the god. He, still infatuated but unable to tell which of the reeds was Syrinx, cut pieces from seven reeds and bound them together to create the first panpipes. The story is found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The music is revolutionary in form – a written-out improvisation with exacting directions. It is thought to be the first piece of classical music to begin with a musical question rather than a statement or exposition. She What a luscious voyage the voice has had in Paris! Charles Aznavour, protégé of Édith Piaf, and known as France’s ‘Frank Sinatra’, is a prolific composer; he has been an important influence on Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, Pavarotti, Rostropovich and many others; he is also godfather to Liza Minnelli. Aznavour’s great legacy to the world of music is far reaching, like the legacy of Paris itself! Night without Sleep This semi-erotic excerpt from French author Colette (a favourite writer) is a billet-doux as much to nature as to her lover. When you live in Paris, the countryside is so close, and this piece reminds me of sleepy summer days beyond the city. I imagine the farm where Colette wrote this. I regularly go to stay at Ronquerolles in an old 17th-century chateau just 30 minutes out of Paris by train. The bird noises were recorded in the summer of 2010 in the fresh green woods of this country estate. Berceuse I play this famous Berceuse on the fast side, as I think perhaps Fauré meant it as a sophisticated and grown-up lullaby. I always free-associate it with Natalie Barney’s literary salon on rue Jacob – a rather fast crowd! In my thinking, the cradle rocks on the bar rather than the half bar. Allegretto from Suite de Trois Morceaux The first piece I ever performed on the flute in public. (I was 13.) A charming, elegant example of French 19th-century salon music.

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The Moon / Clair de lune Even though I love this city with all my heart – beautiful Paris! – as a student I was often lonely and felt lost. I missed the beach, my family and friends. I would look out my Parisian window and sometimes it seemed the moon was my only companion. I would read the poems of Verlaine, and feel less alone. His Clair de lune was the inspiration for Debussy’s composition of the same title. In this interpretation, the words are a collage of that poem, my own poem The Moon, and an appropriation of the sentiments of the masqued beings of whom Verlaine speaks… The music serves as a delicious nostalgic reconciliation.

Clair de lune J’ai la nostalgie de l’amour vainqueur et la vie opportune. Je ne crois pas à mon bonheur et ma chanson se mêle au calme clair de lune triste et beau Jane Rutter, after Verlaine the moon: my soul sister lifts a woeful face and sings an estranged threnody. paled by night sky she hoots, lips pursed light: borrowed. euphoria: desperate. Jane Rutter Votre âme est un paysage choisi Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.

Your soul is a chosen landscape Charmed by masquerades and bergamasques Playing their lutes and dancing Almost sad beneath their odd disguises.

Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur L’amour vainqueur et la vie opportune, Ils n’ont pas l’air de croire à leur bonheur Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,

Singing in a minor key Of conquering love and the good life They do not seem to believe in their happiness And their song mingles with the moonlight

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Au calme clair de lune triste et beau, Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres Et sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau, les grands jets d’eau sveltes parmi les marbres.

The calm, sad, beautiful moonlight Which makes the birds in the trees dream And the fountains sob with ecstasy The tall fountains slender among the marble statues.

Paul Verlaine; translation by Jane Rutter Les Chemins de l’Amour Poulenc was a friend and colleague of Jean-Pierre Rampal, and also of Natalie Barney, two of my great heroes! (Photos 5,7 and 9 on page 10 were taken in front of Barney’s ‘Temple of Friendship’.) Poulenc, with his music sans étiquette (without labels) and his open homosexuality (like Barney), was a quiet revolutionary, a conduit between the Parisian Belle Époque and modern times. Having been taught by Rampal, I feel as if I knew him! His music has that particularly French ability to travel effortlessly through the most sensuous harmonies. No need for the constraints or shackles of intellect – the technical discipline of the writing is so completely mastered that it becomes a journey of instinct… Salut d’Amour My mother is English, and this piece was in our piano stool when I was growing up. A charming and skilfully penned French-inspired English tribute to the Parisian Belle Époque. I Love Paris It is not unusual to find street performers and gypsies in Paris. This habanera / tango style arrangement of the piece allows me to dance as I play. Alain Marion always encouraged his students to move freely as they played, to be at one in mind and body with the flow of the piece. Veloce Claude Bolling was a colleague and friend of Rampal. The great flutist Raymond Guiot, one of my teachers (interviewed on the DVD of An Australian in Paris), tells me he was the first one to ever play this piece, when it was being auditioned for Jean-Pierre. I love its Vaudevillian qualities. It requires a particular brilliance from the pianist. Wonderful David Mibus on piano! Golliwogg’s Cakewalk ‘One evening Debussy, obsessed and overcome, was singing, inside himself, his symphonic memories of the work we had just heard… While two black spirals of hair danced on his forehead, his faun’s 13

laugh rang out in reply, not to our laughter, but to some inner solicitation, and I engraved at that moment in my memory this image of the great master of French music in the process of inventing before our very eyes, the jazz band.’ – Colette, from En pays connu Harmonie du soir Krishna Alain Marion was an inspiring, passionate teacher who used remarkable imagery to convey ideas to students. To this day, I can still hear Alain’s voice saying, ‘Jane, imagine you are in an opium den in India. Imagine you are living in The 1001 Nights. You are the Sheherazade of the flute. Charm the world with your sounds and stories.’ In this arrangement of Roussel’s Krishna I took Alain’s words and applied them to the original piano score. Transcribed for various Eastern percussion instruments, loops and gongs, with solo cello and deep bass drum, it is a treatment of the music that paves the way for the album’s transition into more heavily orchestrated tracks… A Scream of Salutation from Paris was Yesterday Janet Flanner, one of the great writers of the 20th century, was Parisian correspondent for the New Yorker magazine from the 1920s till the 1950s. This is a section of her famous description of Paris’s first glimpse of the world’s first ‘black’ superstar, Josephine Baker. It Ain’t Necessarily So I searched for the right piece with which to represent glamorous Josephine Baker. Although claimed by Paris as one of their own, I wanted her to be bathed in the music of one of the ‘Americans in Paris’… who better than George Gershwin? It Ain’t Necessarily So was originally part of the opera Porgy and Bess, but this lush arrangement could so easily have been written for the groundbreaking sensual goddess who crossed boundaries of artforms, race and gender, and who in many ways rewrote the direction of 20th-century choreography. Gay Paree I feel an affiliation with Henry Mancini, a flute player who started piccolo at age eight. This song, from the film Victor / Victoria, represents Paris’s long tolerance – at least on an artistic level – for diverse gender. The voices in the background are from a live performance I did in Café KoKo – a famous drag club in the Marais in Paris.

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Brave In the journey that is An Australian in Paris, there’s a moment in the DVD where I reminisce about my days living in the Maison du Mexique in Paris’s Cité Universitaire… The students who lived below me would come home late every Friday night and throw a wild party. After a month of ruined Saturday morning flute lessons, I was understandably frustrated, and marched downstairs to complain. They responded: ‘You like tequila? You can party with us. WE ARE YOUR AMIGOS!’ I decided, if you can’t beat ’em... The next morning I had the best flute lesson of my life. (Thanks to Ally Kelleway, Bertie Boekemann and friends for the party noise!) Apollinaire Said Paris invites you to come to the edge and push the boundaries and fly. A beautifully crafted poem for Apollinaire which extracts the essence and fascination of Paris. Apollinaire: poet, word-architect and friend of Poulenc, Natalie Barney, Colette, Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, André Salmon, Marie Laurencin, André Derain, Jean Cocteau, Satie, Ossip Zadkine, Chagall and Duchamp, amongst others. Scherzino Andersen wrote many wonderful studies and pieces for flute. Known for their charming harmonic progressions and technical challenges, they are likened by flute players to the piano studies of Chopin. (Although this one is written for flute, it sounds more like flying when played on piccolo.) Galop: Le Cancan There is something endearing and compelling about this piece of music: so frothy and popular, so often heard. Every time I perform it, the audience claps along. There is still talk on the streets of Paris that the reason for the success of the dance called le cancan was the lack of lingerie worn by the dancers! It’s so cheeky that it sits well on the equally impertinent piccolo. The French Song When I began writing An Australian in Paris, Julia Lester suggested to me that I include as a sort of encore The French Song, The Coodabeen Champions’ hilarious take on the French language. I fell about laughing, Stuart Maunder and I tweaked the words and I have been having fun with it ever since. (French friends can’t really understand what’s so amusing – just a string of words one after another, really!) 15

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Milord Another musical curtsey to the great Édith Piaf, this time more jaunty, and on piccolo. Bonus track: Boléro de Ravel This sinuous French Hispanic piece has always reminded me of Picasso – the Spanish genius without whom Paris would not be the Paris we know and adore. Picasso arrived in provocative, lyrical Paris just at the right time – both for him and for Paris. They shaped each other. Although this piece has appeared on a previous album, An Australian in Paris would not be complete without it: my musical tribute to young Pablo Ruiz!

Executive Producers Martin Buzacott, Robert Patterson Recording Producer Jane Rutter Associate Producer Lyle Chan Recording Engineers Simon Cohen, Tim Carr, Mike Morgan Editing Simon Cohen, Tim Carr (Studios 301), Jane Rutter Additional Editing Don Bartley, Michael Letho, Lyle Chan Mastering Don Bartley, Benchmark Studios Publications Editor Natalie Shea Marketing and Catalogue Coordinator Laura Bell Introduction and Notes Jane Rutter Cover Photograph Brendan Read Cover Concept Shelley Eburn Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd Booklet Photographs Jane Rutter (pp2, 10), Christopher Wride (pp6-7, 16) Back Page Calligramme ‘Salut monde’ by Guillaume Apollinaire, adapted by Shelley Eburn: ‘Greetings to the world, whose eloquent tongue I am. May your mouth, O Paris, forever smile on flutists.’ Instruments Concert Flute: Verne Powell 14-carat gold, silver keys, Boston Head joint Piccolo: Burkart Ebony Boston model Alto Flute: Sankyo Balinese Suling (It Ain’t Necessarily So) Chinese Bamboo Flute (She, It Ain’t Necessarily So ) Piano: Yamaha 7’6” grand; Stuart & Sons (Gay Paree )

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Recorded at Studios 301, Sydney except 7 Recorded ‘chez Darlison’, Blackheath, NSW; audio engineer: Patrick Mullens @ Originally recorded by Richard Lush # Original audio engineers: Michael Letho, Peter Bowman ¶ From the live DVD An Australian in Paris; audio post-production by Michael Letho, Simon Cohen at Studios 301 and Don Bartley at Benchmark Studios Jane Rutter thanks Raymond Guiot, Alain Marion, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Lucy Gibson, Gaye Thomas, Lyle Chan, Martin Buzacott, Christiane Marion, Shelley Eburn, Warwick Ross, Diane Cilento, The Karnak Playhouse, Margaret Crawford, Michael Scott, The Independent Theatre, Richard Gill OAM, Greg Khoury, Olivier Pedan, Denis Verroust, Sheryl Cohen, Ransom Wilson, Nina Perlove, Bill Reed, Linneys of Broome, Elizabeth Darlison, Michael Huxley, Barry Toomey QC, Julia King AM, Lorraine Copley, Susan Rothwell, Barry Landa, Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn, Michelle & Guido Belgiorno-Nettis, Ian & Sybil Gauld, Alan Woods, Richard & Christine Purcell, Studios 301, Flutes & Flutists (Northbridge, Sydney), Powell Flutes, Made in Paris Hair (Mosman, Sydney), Marianna Annas, Frédéric Dart, Jean-Jacques Garnier, Christian Meyer, Mr David Ritchie AO, The Australian Embassy in Paris, Consulat général de France (Sydney), Emmanuelle Denavit-Feller, Harriet O’Malley, Maurizia Dalla Volta, Guy Noble, Julia Lester, All ‘An Australian in Paris’ AbaF supporters, AbaF, Louise Walsh, Anne Rutter, Bertie Rutter Boekemann, The Kelleways, Tim Creswell & Miles Selwyn at Buffdubs, Michael Letho, Jack Shand Chambers (Sydney), Garland Hawthorn Brahe Solicitors, Alliance Française de Sydney, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, Australian Institute of Music, L’Association Jean-Pierre Rampal www.jprampal.com, La Traversière Journal de Flûte www.traversieres.eu, The Australian Flute Society, The Flute Society of NSW, The Victorian Flute Guild. Jane Rutter gratefully acknowledges the support of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. Jane Rutter chooses to fly Etihad. Jane Rutter prefers L’Oréal products. Legals: James Bell ABC Classics thanks Jonathan Villanueva and Virginia Read. www.abcclassics.com [email protected] www.janerutter.com www.anaustralianinparis.com All tracks licensed to ABC Classics by Jane Rutter.  2012 Jane Rutter. 훿 2012 Jane Rutter. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.

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