Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin


Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin was a French flutist and composer of the late Baroque period. He was a son of Jean-Joseph Buffardin, an instrument maker.
Buffardin was the principal flutist of the orchestra at the court of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden from 1715 to 1749. He was the teacher of flutists Johann Joachim Quantz, Pietro Grassi Florio, and Johann Sebastian Bach's elder brother, Johann Jacob Bach, whom he met in Constantinople in 1711.
Buffardin's Concerto in E minor for Flute is the only work which it is certain he wrote. Quantz said of Buffardin: "Il ne jouait que des choses rapides: car c'est en cela qu'excellait mon maître.". Antoine Mahaut claimed that Buffardin was the inventor of the flute's screw cap and the foot register; it remains uncertain whether or not a transverse flute stamped "Buffardin le fils" may be attributed to him or a relative.

Selected discography