Das Oboen Ensemble Michel Piguet and the Tarr Brass Ensemble presented a concert in Zurich on June 1, 1975 which included works of Couperin, Zelenka, Johann Philipp Krieger, Telemann, and culminated in a performance of the Music for the Royal Fireworks of Handel.
Fourteen oboes in this band were copies of an oboe in the Basel Museum made in 1715 by Schlegel. The copies were made by Bernard Schermer of Stafa, Switzerland. Michel Piguet himself conducted and played simultaneously on a copy of an antique Rottenburgh oboe which he owns. This copy was made by Friedrich von Huene of Brookline, Massachusetts. Three tailles (tenor oboes) were also used - one copy of a Denner made by Paul Hailperin, and two copies of Humler instruments made by Schermer. Among the bassoons were two originals by Prudent, one Steinkopf instrument, and one copy of a Prudent made and played by Hansjurg Lange. The Music for the Royal Fireworks was recorded for Erato.
Monsieur Piguet again taught the baroque oboe at Oberlin College's fourth Baroque Performance Institute during the summer of 1975 and conducted ensemble classes as well. The accompanying photograph of the "Hoberlin Hoboys" shows him at work with such a class.
Another performance of the Royal Fireworks Music employing a large ensemble of oboists took place in January in Seattle where the guiding spirit behind the project was Laila Storch, professor at the University of Washington and oboist of the Soni Ventorum Quintet. Kathy Boyer Gay writing in the University of Washington Daily quotes Miss Storch:
"It's a monster dream, an extravaganza! I'm sure this is a first for Seattle, perhaps the West Coast. Actually in my experience I have not heard of any performance with 26 oboes in the States."
The Daily article continues:
"the thought of 26 oboes en masse brings a cry of horror from disparagers and at least a sense of wonder from even the most devoted of oboe fanciers. Not so in Handel's day. The usual military wind band of the 18th century was composed of large numbers of oboes, which came in various sizes and shapes and were tuned lower than today's oboe. England's King George II, apparently a lover of 'martial wind instruments,' commissioned Handel to compose music to accompany a fireworks display commemorating the October 1748 Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle ending the War of Austrian Succession. If the war made little impression on the English, the music probably made even less, what with 101 brass cannons going off, fireworks fizzling, going off at the wrong time or falling among the crowd, and the pavilion specially built for the occasion catching fire. As Storch said, the original concert was a 'musical disaster' Storch has been waiting for years to find the music and gather enough of her student oboists together to perform the music in its original scoring. 'While we won't be playing this on 24 baroque oboes, it will be as close to the original as feasible.' She first conceived the idea of re creating the original concert when she heard a recording of the Fireworks in its original version for winds while visiting friends in London in 1962. 'They had to scour London to get all the professional oboe players needed for the recording' . . . . . She explained that the only time that many oboists could get together (the original number of 24) to make the recording was after midnight when they were finished with their other concerts. She said the recording, made under the auspices of the Bach Guild on the Vanguard label, always stayed in her mind but until this year, she could never see the possibility of doing her own production of the music. . . . .It's a dream come true."
