The bassoon is not as well known as other classical instruments, even now. It was quite a different story in the 18th and early19th centuries, when the instrument was far more prominent. Take the many concertos that Vivaldi wrote for the bassoon: more than 30 in total. W.A. Mozart and his contemporaries wrote concertos for the bassoon and orchestra. Despite the thorough modernisation of the instrument, the bassoon was overshadowed by other wind instruments in the second half of the 19th century, particularly as a solo instrument. These other instruments had undergone many changes and were capable of producing greater volumes of sound.

From the 20th century onwards, composers began to bring out the qualities of the bassoon as a solo instrument again, in an appropriate balance and in various music styles.  In a continuation of this process, Bert Helsen and Filip Neyens, both of whom are soloists with the Belgian National Orchestra, decided to set up an ensemble that puts a greater emphasis on the versatility of the instrument.  This concept highlights the varied tone colour of both the bassoon and contrabassoon, in a powerful, accessible musical context.

The HaftCraft ensemble has been giving concerts since 2014, starting out as a septet with a bassoon, contrabassoon and string quintet. In this formation, they played in Belgium and made a Chinese tour. The ensemble was a guest at the first edition of the Contemporary Music Festival in Tehran, Iran.

In “Variations on a Persian Theme”, the ensemble searches for a symbiosis between Iranian music and Western classical music. The formation: a string quartet, bassoon and soprano. They were invited to perform this program at the Festival de Wallonie in 2016, in Antwerp (AMUZ), Brussels (Bozar), Mechelen (St Rumbold’s Cathedral) and Leuven (KULeuven benefit concert). They performed in July 2019 at the Glasperlenspiel Festival in Estonia. Their most recent programme, 7 TEARS, with music by John Dowland and Tõnu Kõrvits, was premièred at the Bijloke in Ghent on 4 October 2017. This project is a co-production with the Astria Oboe Trio, supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture.