| 15-3-2020 – Corona virus Because of the Corona virus, the workshop is temporarily closed for people who want to visit to get more information about the bassoons, to come for a maintenance for their own bassoon, to pick up their finished, ordered bassoon and any other reason to visit the workshop. Production just goes on. |
Baroque Bassoon after an early, partly anonymous, original with Wing- joint stamped Rockobaur, before 1750-1760 Vienna, Austria.
The original instrument belongs to a private collection. It has amazing acoustical qualities. It is very good playable with easy fingerings at a’= 415 Hz, but also at a’=430 Hz by using a slightly shorter Wing-joint and Bocal.
Besides the wing joint which is stamped Rockobaur, the other parts of the instrument are unstamped.
It is very likely that the unstamped parts of the instrument, the Double bore (Boot-joint) , Long-joint and Bell (Bell-joint) are much older than the stamped Wing-joint and have been made by a predecessor or teacher of M. Rockobaur.
This may also be the reason of the beautiful warm, baroque sound the instrument has.
M. Rockobaur was the court-musical instrumentmaker of the Esterhazy-court in Austria and delivered instruments to Haydns orchestra.
Soundtrack: Sergio Azzolini. Vivaldi, Concerto RV 495 in sol minore – Allegro
Bassoon, anonymous. Reconstruction at Venetian pitch (a=440 Hz.).
After a three years research with Sergio Azzolini, this instrument was reconstructed and ready for sale.
The instrument has 4 keys and has a beautiful open sound that is very suitable for Italian music.
Sergio Azzolini uses this instrument for the complete series of recordings of Vivaldi’s bassoonconcerto’s (Naive)
Soundtrack: Danny Bond, Première Sonate for bassoon,E.Ozi
Paris c. 1770
About the Prudent Thierriot replica: My copy of the Prudent Thierriot bassoon is based on an instrument made in the second half of the 18th century in Paris, now in the collection of the Brussels Conservatory museum.
The instrument was the subject of a paper on Acoustics and Mathematics at Nijmegen University(Holland) by Jos de Lange, bassoonist with the Koninklijk Concertgebouw Orkest, Amsterdam.
De Lange found that this instrument is very suitable for baroque music because of the position of the formants (certain groups of harmonics with a relative higher sound pressure) in the sound spectrum of the instrument. The sound is, in fact, similar to that of instruments of the 1st half of the 18th century. The Prudent bassoon has 5 keys.
Soundtrack: Alberto Grazzi, Mozart, Bassoonconcerto KV 191
Classical Bassoon after J.H. Grenser
Dresden 1764-1843
About the Heinrich Grenser replica: In 1981, Danny Bond and I began to develop a classical bassoon modeled after an instrument by Heinrich Grenser (Dresden, 1764-1813). This instrument belonged to the collection of the Gemeentemuseum at The Hague(Holland). Grenser was one of the best instrument makers of his time.
Our research from 1981-1983 led to the development of the first prototype. In 1995 we made an important improvement in the boot-joint bore which has improved the response of all the instruments I have made since then. My replicas are made of dark brown stained maple with brass keywork and fittings.
The instrument can be heard on recordings of the Mozart bassoon concerto by Danny Bond, Dennis Godburn and Alberto Grazzi.
The Grenser replica has 9 brass keys. pitch: a’=430 hz. The instrument is made of darkbrown stained curly maple.
Soundtrack: Alberto Grazzi,Vivaldi,Concerto RV 483,
Baroque Bassoon after J.H. Eichentopf
Leipzig 1686-1769
About the J.H. Eichentopf reconstruction bassoon: In 1998 I finished the first reconstruction / prototype of a bassoon, based on the two surviving Eichentopf bassoons in Neurenberg and Prague.
The instrument has 4 brass keys. pitch: a’=415 hz. The colour of the bassoon is a dark, yellow stained, curly maple.
| Some CD’s with our instruments |
Composer / Piece / Bassoonist / Our copy after / Label
– Casanova, An dem stillen Meeresstrande, auf Gedichte von
Heinrich Heine, Sergio Azzolini (prototype Rocko Baur)
Ai Ikeda (Eichentopf) Casanova (2013)
– Vivaldi, Concerti per fagotto, Alberto Grazzi (Eichentopf)
Arcana A 365 (2013)
– Vivaldi, Concerti per fagotto III, Sergio Azzolini
(Venetian 4 keys, a’= 440Hz) Naive OP30539 (2012)
Gramophone Choice Award
– Vivaldi, Concerti per fagotto II, Sergio Azzolini
(Venetian 4 keys, a’= 440Hz) Naive OP30518 (2011)
– El Carnaval de Madrid, Danzas, Anonymous,
de Fesch, Rubato Appasionato, Eyal Streett (Prudent)
ACD 001 (2011)
– Vivaldi, The French Connection 2, Peter Whelan
(Venetian 4 keys, a’=440Hz) AVIE, AV2218 (2011)
Gramophone Award 2012
– Vivaldi, Gods, Emperors & Angels, Peter Whelan
(Venetian 4 keys, a’=440Hz) AVIE , AV 2201 (2010)
Gramophone Award 2010
– Vivaldi, Concerti per fagotto I, Sergio Azzolini (Venetian 4 keys, a’= 440Hz) Naive OP30496 (2010)
—DIAPASON d’OR–,
CHOC de la MUSIQUE- 2010, Echo Klassik, CONCERTO RECORDING OF THE YEAR 2011 (INCL. 18TH CENTURY)/ BASSOON
40 years experience in manufacturing historical musical instruments
Deliverytime about 2 years at the moment
| I started making bassoons in 1977, later collaborating with bassoonist, Mr. Danny Bond, to develop some models of 18th and early 19th century bassoons. Danny is one of the leading performers on historical bassoons and is principal bassoon of The Orchestra of the 18th Century, and The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco. With Mr. Bond I first made reconstructions of bassoons by Prudent Thierriot, Paris (c.1770,) Heinrich Grenser (Dresden c. 1810), and a contrabassoon after A. Eichentopf (Germany, 1714). Many of these replicas found their way to musicians all over the world. Together with Mr. Marc Vallon and later also with Mr. Sergio Azzolini we did a project to reconstruct a German baroque bassoon from the period of J.S. Bach. Mr Vallon is principal bassoon of both the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and the Orchestre de Champs Elysiis. He also is professor early bassoon in the Paris CNSM. In 1995, 1996 and 1997 Mr. Vallon and I visited the musical instrument collections of Prague, Leipzig, Neurenberg and Linz to examine the bassoons made by the german makers I. Poerschman and J.H. Eichentopf, both working in Leipzig during the first half of the 18th century. This research resulted in a reconstruction of an Eichentopf bassoon that we finished in the summer of 1998. Many important bassoonists have ordered this instrument already. After intensive research, together with Mr. Sergio Azzolini, we recently finished the first reconstruction of a four-keyed bassoon. The instrument is tuned to a=440 Hz., the Venetian pitch standard at the time of Vivaldi. The instrument possesses a special timbre that is perfectly suited to the language of Vivaldi’s music. |
Interesting Links
Historical Fingeringcharts
Hist. Bassoon and Contrabsn. Fingering Charts (IDRS)
Reeds
-Reedmaker Ivan Calestani : ivancalestani@libero.it
-James Kopp reeds
Other links
IDRS