Travel to the very end of the U2 underground line in Berlin, to Pankow, and

you find yourself in the quiet, tree-lined “Schulstrasse” (School street.) A brick
and white-plastered house stands alone behind metal railings. This is the
home of the Ludwig Frank Oboe.
Upstairs in a small workshop I find Ludwig Frank with 2 colleagues, building
the oboes, which over the last 15 years have made him a household name
amongst oboists not just in Berlin, but all over Germany and indeed the world.
I interviewed Herr Frank about the oboes, their development and what makes
them so special. Here is a translation of our conversation.

MAE: Herr Frank, where did you study woodwind instrument making?
LF: With Monig in Marknuekirchen. I was there from 1979.

Ludwig Frank met the Oboe maker Herr Springer in 1992 and worked with
him to develop the Springer Oboe. In 1994 he bought the company. I asked
him what it was about the Springer Oboe that attracted him to work with Herr
Springer.
LF: It was mainly the unique sound the instrument had and the design of the
top joint that made the instrument not too bright sounding. The oboe was
really a prototype at this time, and needed developing. We bought the firm in
1994 and developed the Oboe from then.
MAE: What is the concept behind the Frank Oboe?
LF: The basic principal was to develop an instrument that would be
acceptable to a wider range of players. We felt that it should be possible to
make an instrument that was in terms of build quality and intonation, problem
free. In addition, over the 15 years that we have been developing the Oboes,
tastes have changed. Many have looked for something other than just a dark
sound. They have looked for another instrument than Marigaux, and that is
why we developed our second Model the ‘Brilliant’, which has appealed to
players who have formally played on Marigaux oboes.
MAE: Have the oboes changed much in the last 15 years?
LF: Yes, of course. We have worked with many oboists. The Oboe section
from the Berlin Staatskapelle has been particularly helpful and active in the
development of the oboe. They tried the instruments and made comments.
Gregor Witt [Principal Oboist since 1993 in the Staatskapelle Berlin] has now
changed to the ‘Brilliant’ model, saying that he finds it has more brilliance in
the higher register and speaks fantastically in the lower register. He also finds
it generally more flexible and versatile.
I have to agree. I only had my Frank oboe 2 days before buying it. As a
second oboist I appreciate an instrument that speaks beautifully in the low
register but which also gives unlimitless flexibility. My colleague who plays on
the original design Frank Oboe described mine as a ‘dream’ oboe.
MAE: The new ‘brilliant’ model has a totally different bell to the original model.
I find the resonance in the low register particularly good. What in your opinion
Herr Frank, does the new bell improve?
LF: The bell is not only different in outward appearance but also internally.
The style is in accordance with the recent trend for the shape of bell of the
Viennese oboe, but inwardly the bore is also thicker. This way the oboe is not
too bright in sound. There’s a nice saying in German: ‘The perfect is the
enemy of the good.’ [Originally from Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique
(1764).]
MAE: The oboes are mechanically incredibly stable. What is your secret Herr
Frank?
LF: One word ‘handarbeit’ [work by hand.] That’s the secret. No part of the
production process is mechanised.
MAE: How many oboes do you make in a year?
LF: Between 55 and a maximum of 60. I do everything myself. If an
instrument is going to carry my name on it, I want to do everything. I even
make the pads. The keywork I no longer make myself. It is made by two very
good people in their homes. What with making student oboes for Oscar Adler,
Cor Anglais for Moenig, and with repairs, I really don’t have time to make
more instruments. How many we build a year is not so important. We aren’t in
competition with other manufacturers to simply build as many as we can.
What is important is the quality. I have more instruments in the shop from
other makers as of my own, and customers only get one Frank oboe to try.
But also I think people don’t need to try 100 bad instruments to find the one
good one. They need to try one good instrument and know it will make them
happy.
MAE: In how many countries are Frank oboes played today?
LF: (Laughs). I have no idea! I never counted. But for example in Brazil, in
China, USA, Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Japan, Korea,
Taiwan, and not forgetting Germany. But not in France. They have their own
way and I doubt they would even think of trying something else.
MAE: What are the pads on the ‘Brilliant’ model made of?
LF: They are cork with a coating of silicon. I think these pads have 3
advantages. Firstly, they are very long lived. Secondly they give a really good
airtight seal and thirdly they resonate better.
MAE: How old is the wood that you use?
LF: 15 years old. But we lay it down after each segment of work, to let it
recuperate, one could say.
MAE: How long does it take to build an oboe?
LF: If I were to make one by myself from start to finish, about a month. But
realistically we do work in batches and the wood is laid down in between, so it
takes longer.
MAE: Why do you use gold for the pillars?
LF: In my opinion it is crucial what material one puts in direct contact with the
wood. Whether the keywork is gold or silver is not so important, only if the
player has sweat that reacts with silver-plating, but otherwise not. The parts
that come in direct contact with the wood are another story, starting with the
reed-well. Ours are made from Sterling silver plated with gold. This idea came
from flute making, where the material used for the lip-plate has a big effect on
the sound. The same goes for the other parts, such as the pillars. When they
are gold-plated they vibrate much better with the wood. We’ve tested this. We
built the same oboe twice, once with silver plated pillars and reed-well and
then with gold. We got the same oboist to test the oboe, and he found that
without a doubt the version using gold pillars was much better. So this has
become our standard. 15 years ago we were about the only manufacturer
using gold, now most of them have copied us! Naturally it’s not just that that
makes the instruments so good, it’s the sum of everything we do.
MAE: How would an Oboist in the UK go about ordering an Oboe from you,
and how long is the waiting list at present?
LF: An oboist in the UK has two options. Firstly Howarth is an agent for our
oboes in England, but they don’t always have them in stock. Secondly, they
can be ordered directly from me. I recommend that customers come and
collect the oboes personally, but I can post if this is not possible. At the
moment the waiting list is about 1 year.
MAE: Wow, 1 year! That’s quite a wait. I only waited 6 months for mine. I must
say though, it was worth the wait. How long is the guarantee?
LF: 3 years, on everything, keywork, cracks, everything. We only build a few
instruments and we want to look after those, not just sell them. It belongs to
our philosophy that musicians are in the long term satisfied and happy with
our oboes. You can only achieve that with a long guarantee.
MAE: Do you want to add anything else?
LF: The acceptance for these oboes in a single country relies heavily on them
being played by top professionals. The rest follows naturally. Otherwise it’s
difficult to sell an oboe that has Berlin instead of Paris printed on it. It’s critical
for me as a German Oboe maker to first get the trust of the oboists in a
country. It’s been the same everywhere in the world. Fumiaki Miyamoto, a real
superstar in Japan bought one. I don’t know how we would have got into the
Japanese market without him. In the UK we haven’t had that yet. People play
on what they know, mainly Howarth and Marigaux. The acceptance for my
oboes in the UK would grow for sure if someone in a top orchestra played
one. Man must have patience. I have learnt that over the years. One must
wait for the day when someone comes and says, “That’s it. That’s the oboe
for me.” It happened in Switzerland. Fate brought the principal oboist from one
of the top orchestras to me and he tried one of my oboes. “Wow” he said,
“that is exactly what I have been looking for.”
And that is exactly what I say! My Frank oboe has a beautiful warm sound.
The intonation is remarkable and I already know from others who have these
instruments, they just don’t go wrong! My old oboe deciding to play up 10
minutes before a performance of Tristan and Isolde was the last straw for me.
I ended up playing the 5-hour opera on my husband’s oboe, which I had never
played before! As the principal oboist in my orchestra said when he tried my
new Frank oboe “You can’t lose.” Look at the website at
www.frankundmeyer.de
If you would like to ask me any more questions about Frank oboes, I’d be
happy to try and answer your questions. You can email me at
maddyaldis@googlemail.com