| 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. |
