Heckel - Werkstatt für Holzblasinstrumente in Wiesbaden - Herrliches Hessen - hr-fernsehen

[linusbergl]

@MrDenull: You can't really compare it since a violin can be a couple of hundred years old and still be playable, but yes; Heckel is, just like Stradivarius, are the highest regarded instruments.

[MrDenull]

Stradivarius? really?

[oogleblerp]

[...continued] she used to play bassoon a little but the makers must concentrate on building, not playing; they have pros to check the instruments, such as Herr [?]; the instruments cost as much as a medium-high end automobile.

--DS

[oogleblerp]

Edith Reiter, great-great-granddaughter of the founder of the Heckel firm, is interviewed by Hessen Broadcasting (HR). Among the things she talks about: it takes 15 years from delivery of the maple (12 yrs of which is for curing) to delivery of a bassoon; they make 50-52 bassoons per year; famous composers such as Wagner and Mahler visited the factory (Mahler trod those very boards); she really had to assert herself as a woman in a traditionally male occupation; [continued]

[marydoob]

Fantastic, I toured the Heckel factory as a child back 1971 and the workshop looks exactly as I had remembered it, what a great memory! Thanks for posting this, great video. Very nice Mozart Concerto too.