 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: vintschevski
Date: 2019-02-07 14:45
Has anybody played a Hans Kreul Boehm clarinet? I've noticed one for sale (in another state of Australia) and have tried to find out more about Hans Kreul clarinets, but have not had much success in learning about either the history of them or their quality. Most favourable comments relate to clarinets that have "Hans Kreul Tuebingen" on them (on both the barrel and bell, I believe), but the specific one for sale has "Hans Kreul Made in Germany" on it. Perhaps the former were for the home market and the latter for international consumption, I don't know.
Anyway, I would be grateful for any comments on the quality of Hans Kreul clarinets. (I've read lots of good things about Hans Kreul oboes.)
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Author: MichaelW
Date: 2019-02-07 17:10
Hans Kreul in the 1970ties, when I lived in Tübingen, was indeed leading in oboes. I played one of them for some time, and in the small shop situated then in Pfleghofstraße in the center of the old town I also bought some recorders. Besides the brand name „Hans Kreul“, for some years they used „Püstophon“ after the master instrument makers Püchner and Stowasser who had been expelled from Kraslice, Bohemia and worked for Kreul after the war. Today, the Kreul firm has survived as a retailer only: https://www.kreul.de/wir_ueber_uns/willkommen/ , managed by Joachim Kreul's widow Helga. In Böhm clarinets they are offering Buffet, Selmer and Uebel.
In the old days, as I can see from my 1976 catalog, Böhm system clarinets were only a minority in their program against a broader range of German clarinets, Oboes and flutes.
I myself have, some years ago, acquired, not at least out of nostalgic reasons, a middle class German system „Püstophon“ clarinet which had served in a Musikverein, well made and quite comparable with other middle class or better instruments.
See also here: http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=444221&t=444199
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2019-02-08 01:35
I can't speak about Kreul clarinets, but if they are of the same quality as the Pustophon clarinets from the same maker then they should be good. I have both a Boehm Pustophon and a German one and they are both extremely well made, tune well and are a delight to play.
Tony F.
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Author: vintschevski
Date: 2019-02-08 02:33
Thanks, Tony. From the little I've been able to see on the internet, the Kreul Tuebingen clarinets seem to be well-regarded intermediate, perhaps even high-intermediate, instruments. I'm wondering whether the Made in Germany ones are as good or better or just what the difference might be, if any. Tricky when there's not much to go by.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2019-02-08 03:55
I only know of one Kreul Boehm system clarinet from the '80s and it was identical to the older Schreiber-built Buffet E11 clarinets from the time apart from it had silver plated keys (the E11 had nickel plated keys as standard back then) and a German-looking short barrel.
The barrel was too short for the owner as they had trouble with it rocking about being pulled that far out to put the instrument in tune with itself, so I lent them the 64.5mm barrel from my Selmer 10S which did the trick.
Kreul are much better known for their oboes than their clarinets.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: vintschevski
Date: 2019-02-08 04:28
Thanks, Chris! Do you possibly happen to remember whether that clarinet had "Made in Germany" on the barrel? (I know, it was a long time ago!) Do you recall any particularly positive or negative aspects apart from the short barrel?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2019-02-08 15:07
What I could tell was the main joints and bell were the same as a mid '80s E11 which were more solidly built compared to later ones, but the barrel looked more like the barrels typically seen on German clarinets. I'll ask the owner if she still has this clarinet and can get and send me some photos of it. Schreiber-built Buffet clarinets (B12 and E11) supplied to the UK never had 'Made in W. Germany' stamped on the back of them, but the Evette models before them did.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: ebonite
Date: 2019-02-09 00:38
Attachment: kreul1a.jpg (758k)
I repadded a Kreul clarinet a couple of years ago (see picture). It seemed to be well built, and had quite a nice sound. It played very sharp relative to A=440
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Author: vintschevski
Date: 2019-02-09 02:10
Now it's become a little more complicated! Thanks for that photo. I see that it has BOTH Tuebingen and Made in Germany on it, whereas previously I have seen only photos of Kreul clarinets with Tuebingen under the maker's name. The particular clarinet that I'm interested in has only Made in Germany under the maker's name.
I had thought that perhaps the Tuebingen ones might be tuned at A442, while the Made in Germany ones (being perhaps for a market outside Germany) might be at A440.
Keep those comments rolling in folks, all appreciated, thank you.
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