12.07.2010 - 21:29
Reviews - Sweet Alps, Matthias Schriefl, Dianne Reeves

by Giuseppe Segala

Sweet Alps “Mundial”
Michael Lösch‘s Project “Mundial”, which was presented on Saturday 3 July at the Studio Theatre in Bolzano/Bozen, is an opus that is marked by a well-defined outline and which conveys the joyful euphoria of a football stadium and the positive energy that we seek when we watch a game. The band “Sweet Alps” is a very compact ensemble able to produce this energy under the competent lead of Helga Plankensteiner. It is hard to compare “Mundial” to last year’s project “Heroes”, which offered more dynamic and expressive nuances. “Mundial” differs greatly but overall surely matches “Heroes” in quality.
The outstanding Gianluca Petrella on the trombone and Matthias Schriefl on the trumpet spurred each other on to top performances.
To be mentioned also the excellent job of director Giuseppe Todesco who was responsible for the editing of the images projected to the video wall. With good taste and a feeling for rhythm he chose pictures from the glorious past of football, showing the world cups in Italy in the thirties and the unforgotten dream team of Turin that was killed in a plane crash. Among the photos were also previously unedited works by Pasolini.

Matthias Schriefl
A revelation! I had never heard of this artist before he surprised me with his musical intelligence, his outstanding solo performances and his typically European irony. Also Gianluca Petrella was overwhelmed.
Schriefl seems to have an insatiable thirst for music. Just before his concert at the “Point 12” branch office of the Südtiroler Sparkasse, he stood at the entrance playing together with Gigi Grata and Hannes Petermair, illustrating his fantasy and originality when interpreting jazz standards. In the same way he was seen in many other places playing and practising on his trumpet.
At the end of the piano solo concert of Danilo Rea on the Comici refuge, for example, he showed up all of a sudden and played a salute to the mountains surrounding the venue in all four directions. This came as a surprise not only to the enthusiastic audience but also to Rea himself who then involved the trumpeter in an “all blues” of rare intensity.

Dianne Reeves
A top class performance, extrovert and full of Afro-American spirit. The voice of Dianne Reeves – sensitive, versatile, expressive and full of character – crowned the jazz festival in front of a thrilled audience. Also the band accompanying the singer showed no weaknesses. A better finale than this no one could wish for.

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