Note: Milan Turkovic, who presented such a fine talk on Mozart's Bassoon Concerto K. 191 at the 1978 IDRS Los Angeles Conference, is also an expert performer on early bassoons, having been for a long time a member of the famed Vienna "Concentus Musicus" He has recorded the Vivaldi e minor Concerto and the "La Notte" Concerto in B-flat using a fine Tauber instrument. The following information on performing with the early instruments was received in a recent letter.
We have (at "Concentus Musicus") two similar bassoons by Caspar Tauber, made in Vienna during the second half of the century (probably around 1780). The bocals are made by Moeck (Celle) . . .
Mr. Fleischmann, who makes all our reeds at the present time uses cane of 1.5 mm. (gouge thickness), but he does not use any special method different from the one he uses for making the modern reed. I have to say that our reed is a sort of compromise: we found out that its sound is almost the same as the one which is a copy of an actual baroque reed. Its shape is like the copy, but its construction is modern. (That makes it easier to switch styles and instruments!) Hansjurg Lange in Aldeburgh (England) makes exact copies of the old reeds . . . The concert pitch of our instruments has been settled at 421. You will find a fingering chart at the end of this letter.
