Josef v. L'oree

I have been looking into buying a new oboe recently. I have a professional model l'oree oboe, which has been the standard professional brand of oboe in the music world. This is beggining to change, however, since a new maker of oboes has come along: Josef. The change is slow to happen however, since many musicians get stuck up on tradition, and many oboists are still bias towards l'orees and skeptical of Josef oboes.

This weekend I got to try Josef oboes first hand and see for myself how they compared. I loved Josef. Granted, my l'oree is 10 years old (and for those of you that do not know, that is pretty old), and it is beginning to blow out. Even though I may be bias towards a new oboe versus my old oboe, I still believe Josefs are a wonderful make of oboe, and I can see why the oboe community is slowly transitioning.

Josefs are much more consistent. Every l'oree is different in feel and tone it seems, but Josef's have a consistency not only within each model but all models share similar features. My professor pointed out that with l'orees, she could go through a batch of twenty oboes and come out with four. Josef oboes? It's much harder to pick one since each instrument varies less.

L'oree oboes often have a flat higher register, a saggy f sharp, a sharp 'e', and various other tuning difficulties. Josef oboes do not have as much variance in the tuning. Josefs are also made so that the fingers of the right hand are not spread as far apart, allowing for more technical ease. I also loved the tone quality in the lower register, which was very resonant.

The choice seems obvious then: Josef is better than L'oree. However, many oboists are traditionalists and want to stick with L'oree, because that is the way it has been: if you play oboe, you buy a l'oree. But the times are changing. L'oree used to be the best around, and they do still make good oboes!, it's just that Josef has made oboes that are more up to date, thus overpowering the monopoly L'oree used to hold.