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-March 22 2012
Beginning february you sent me some reeds to Paris (Philippe).
I received them in the Rigoutat factory. Shortly after, I had to fly to Mexico City to play various concertos as soloist with orchestra. The altitude of Mexico City is 2600 m, usually you cannot play on new reeds there- your reeds were splendid (you know, I never use the knife since I use your reeds) and I enjoyed very much playing Lebrun no 2 with orchestra. After that I stayed 3 days only in Europe before I left to Japan, having to work in Tokyo, Kagoshima and Amami island.
This last one is a sort of tropical japanese island with its own humid climate.
I played there a chamber music recital, which lasted over 2 hours.
I used several reeds, after the concert, I realised that is was the same reeds I had been using in the 2600m Mexico. It is something almost impossible, but it happened.
After that I had to work in Florence, Italy, and the same reeds were wonderful.
So I want to say a really big Thank you to you for making me oboistic life so much easier!
-Previous
I was very pleased with the reeds you sent me to Osaka in October!
Some were really wonderful and I could play one right away in my recital in Osaka including baroch music, modern music,big wind ensemble and chamber music.
Later on, after a few other concerts, I played the same reed in Brasil for Strauss concert when it was 38 degrees Celsius and again later in Italy in a recital with harp in the middle of snow with -5 degrees outside. To conclude the range, I played a recital in a church in Mallorca,Spain at 12 degrees Celsius and high humidity - all the same reed!
The Brasilian Strauss is on YouTube entirely
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIftq9Wczmw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYwZbKmQpyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZcuj6cIQ1Y
Incredible, that the climate seems NOT to influence your reeds AT ALL!
On K.GE REEDS Oboe Reeds
I often share with my students the good experiences I have as I go about my work. I told them about my good feelings about KGE REEDS after KGE sent me some reeds to the Kusatsu Festival 2006, where I played on a reed which arrived the very day for the concert that night. (For the oboists who have taken part at the Kusatsu festival, as all students or maestros know, this is one of the most difficult places on our dear planet for reeds.)
Furthermore, the very same reeds worked very well at Yokohama some days later and also in Italy and France some weeks after this!
After that experience, I was very happy to receive more of KGE reeds for my newest CAMERATA CD of Albinoni concertos, which will go to market in summer.
For this CD I played one reed during one week and it was a great in that it helped me focus solely on the music ( People who know me are aware of the fact, that my interest in music goes above interest in instruments or reeds) so if I can say that a reed did not disturb my music-making, for me it is the highest compliment I can give.
On K.GE REEDS Oboe cane
Every oboist knows that climate or weather change influences enormously the way an oboe reeds work. It has to do with humidity, temperature, altitude and other things, and (of course!) particularly, the quality of the cane. Cane is a living material, but does it want to live WITH us or AGAINST us? In my opinion, the cane of K.GE REEDS is the cane that is the most independent of climate than any other cane that I know of. For example: in this period (April) in Europe it is usually very difficult to make reeds, because the climate changes every day.
As a matter of fact, all the reeds I made with cane from K.GE REEDS hardly change when the weather changes. The same happens when I travel from one place to another: "Will the reeds be the same as they were at home?” (This is a question I often ask myself) K.GE REEDS cane is very stable, and in my experience, there is very little change, even while you travel.
I don’t know why it has this quality. It seems that it does not have to be very old to become stable, but I think that it is the growing condition of the plants, used by K.GE REEDS: there must be perfect mineral ground, no water, growing slowly for this stability to be present. The end result, in my opinion, is that KGE REEDS cane is a material that is very compact
(external conditions like climate, or bad
conductors aside --joke!--) can’t lower its quality.
Unfortunately, all this means that no oboe player can blame the cane for bad breathing or for not practicing -- not anymore!
