Introducing the Reewald Professional Oboe Reed

Are you needing a new oboe reed and open to trying something new? Howarth of London are pleased to introduce a new oboe reed to our catalogue—the Reewald Professional Oboe Reed. The Reewald Oboe company was founded in Leipzig, Germany, in 2018 by a group of highly experienced people passionate about producing oboe reeds of an excellent standard. The company is associated with renowned oboist Lin Qing.

Lin Qing studied his bachelor degree at the Xi’an Conservatory of Music in 2001 under Professor Zhao Baoping, and then studied a professional diploma, whilst performing as principle oboist in the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts Orchestra. He achieved a Master’s Degree in 2007, during which he studied under Professor Maurice Bourgue, and then later completed a second Master’s degree which he studied at Haute Ecole de Musique de Laussane with Jean-Louis Capezzali.

As an oboist, Qing has won various high-profile accolades internationally, including achieving first prize at the International Double Reed Society Gillet-Fox oboe competition in 2013. In the same year, Qing also successfully completed a Maisterklasse Diploma at die Hochschule fur Musik und Theatre ‘Felix Mendelsohn Bartholdy’ in Leipzig, during which he was tutored by Professor Nick Deutsch.

Currently, Qing is principal oboist of the German Tempus Konnex Modern Chamber Orchestra and also teaches at die Hochschule fur Musik und Theatre ‘Felix Mendelsohn Bartholdy’ in Germany, and the Xi Conservatoire of Music in China. He frequently gives masterclasses and recitals, and has performed with several renowned orchestras worldwide.

The Reewald company take into consideration that every oboist plays on a different instrument with a different style in a different region, so aim to create consistent reeds which can be individually adjusted by the player if necessary. Lin Qing’s heavy involvement in the company’s quality control process guarantees the production of reliable and high-quality reeds. Qing first inspects the cane to select pieces of high-quality, then ensures the reeds are bound and scraped accurately, and finally adjusts and tests each reed.

Here is a video of Lin Qing playing the oboe using a Reewald oboe reed:

Following years of research, Lin Qing has developed the ‘Qing’ shape which the Reewald Professional Oboe Reeds are made with. Reewald claim that using this shape allows them to make reeds ‘which are consistently of a high quality with a very warm sound, very [stable] intonations and big vibration’. The Reewald Professional oboe reeds are designed to be of a style which is between German and French (slightly closer to the French style), resulting in a responsive and free-blowing reed with a ‘flexible…, bright and mellow sound’. As of May 2019, Howarth of London are please to stock the Reewald Professional oboe reeds, which are unwired, of a medium strength, and made using Chiarugi no. 2 47mm brass staples.

The Reewald Oboe company offer their customers useful suggestions to help them obtain the best playing results from their reeds; for example, there is a red dot on one side of each reed’s staple which indicates the advised blade for the oboist to keep facing upwards whilst playing. Reewald also advise that you soak their reeds for seven minutes before playing them for the first time. It is always important to soak reeds prior to playing them as absorbing moisture will cause the cane’s fibres to expand, and prevent cracking. Reewald Professional oboe reeds do initially appear to have a very open aperture, but soaking the reeds in water for the extended length of time Reewald suggest will somewhat close the reed’s blades, controlling the amount they will vibrate.

It is common for oboists who purchase pre-made reeds to adjust them by hand to their own preferences. Helpfully, Reewald provide the following recommendations for scraping their professional reeds to your desired thickness: ‘If the reed is too hard, try to scrape the red part a little evenly as it is shown in Graph 1’ (below), or ‘If you prefer the reeds to be softer, scrape the middle part of the reed narrow as shown in Graph 2’ (also below).

At £19.95, the Reewald Professional oboe reeds are competitively priced compared to the other professional oboe reeds currently on the market.

Of course, oboe reeds that are subjected to high pressure, such as being dropped or squeezed, will break quickly, but Reewald reeds are designed to be very long-lasting. They have been very positively received and are becoming increasingly popular throughout Europe, boasting users such as Maurice Borgue, Francois Leleux, and Ivan Podyomov. There is currently a limited stock of Reewald Professional oboe reeds available for purchase from Howarth of London, so if you are looking for an alternative to your current preferred oboe reed, Reewald’s reeds are highly recommended for you to try. For more information about these reeds, please visit our London showrooms or email oboe@howarth.uk.com.

*Price correct at time of printing.

Bethany Craft, Oboe Specialist – Howarth of London