After you’ve been playing the oboe for a while, you develop your own system for organizing your reeds. If I am preparing for a recital or some other solo, it is not unusual for me to put away those “really good reeds” as I make them so that I have a collection for the big day.

With this Bach Double performance in particular, I remember being surprised by the really good reed in my case. I had only made a few because my gouge was feeling pretty good, and I actually hadn’t put away many at all. It was the morning of the performance, and like I always do on the morning of an afternoon/evening performance, I got out every reed I was considering and lined them up in my reed case in order of how good they felt that day.

The reed I ended up choosing to play had NEVER been played on, but had somehow “morphed” into just the right reed for that day and hopefully, for that performance. I didn’t even need to scrape it. It responded just the right way and felt just right for what I knew the acoustics required. (The recital was given at Church of the Holy Trinity, Episcopal, in NYC)

I don’t usually make a fuss about reeds generally, but I normally do scrape on them a bit or refine them just one last time before a performance. This reed didn’t need anything, and I was not only surprised but a little skeptical. But, compared to others I was considering, it was far superior.

I never like to oversoak my reeds, even hours before a performance, so after coming to all these conclusions in a few minutes, I put it away for the concert later. And it came to pass it was a really good reed in the moment of truth (as my teacher used to say), and that is all that matters. It turned out to be one of those performances where you actually play the music and don’t think about the reed.

What fun…

You can listen to a movement from the live performance here.