“I’m in the front, but that’s a coincidence.” Edoardo Pirozzi doesn’t like to be in the foreground. His job keeps getting in the way: he is the new director of the Gelting music band, and as such his place is in front of the orchestra and not in the middle. Unless he puts his horn to his mouth and plays in one of the ensembles in which he is a member, or where he always fills in as a temporary help, such as the opera orchestra “Europa Musica” in Rome, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Federal Police Orchestra Munich or the Lower Bavarian Philharmonic of the Theater Passau. Then he can disappear with his instrument inconspicuously into the ranks of the musicians.
The young conductor knows exactly where he wants to go with his orchestra
But now the 38-year-old, who comes from Civitavecchia near Rome, is sitting on a kind of director’s chair, carried by a pedestal in the rehearsal room of the Geltinger Musikkapelle under the Plieninger town hall and looks a little sternly over at his troupe. Tuesday evening, the orchestra rehearsal is in full swing. China March is the name of the task, the piece for wind orchestra was written by the contemporary Austrian composer Gerhard Hafner. “I don’t hear enough d,” says Pirozzi, “g and d, the fifth, are the harmony, they are the most important tones, that characterizes Chinese music,” explains the conductor, repeating: “I don’t hear enough d.” So everything again from the beginning. Trumpets, trombones, flutes are played again, horns lifted, fingers sorted on clarinet keys. It goes on for a few bars, then the conductor intervenes again, explains with an unmistakable Italian accent why he dislikes the passage he has played, and when he says it, it sounds like “stelle”, which means “stars” in Italian. But no matter how sonorous his explanations are, the young conductor knows exactly where he wants to go with his orchestra.
Orchestra rehearsal in the basement under the town hall, in the foreground Anke Hierl, chairwoman of the association, with her clarinet.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
He wants to create culture for the provinces with his amateur musicians. After all, with the direction of the Geltinger Ensemble he has taken on the responsibility of continuing a long tradition, and he wants to live up to it. Performances in the community are very important to him, benefit concerts, city celebrations, church services, “everything that connects people.” The music band was founded by father and son Günther Schuler more than 30 years ago and was directed by the junior until two years ago, before he withdrew from management responsibility. Schuler can now devote himself to his baritone horn again and only has to step in when Pirozzi just doesn’t have time – as if temporarily on this evening, since he asks for a conversation in an adjoining room. Here the tones of the orchestra can only be heard muffled. “But I’m glad that Günther Schuler is there, I’m still learning from him,” explains Pirozzi.
It quickly became clear that the young Italian would be chosen
The father of two went through a professional selection process in order to get the position as Kapellmeister in Pliening. The 38-year-old, who lives in Ebersberg with his wife, who, like him, teaches at the music school, reports that he applied “with his CV and certificates.” A trial conducting was then canceled because of the first lockdown and had to be repeated later, says club chairman Anke Hierl, who sits at the front of the chapel as a clarinetist. But then it quickly became clear that the Italian would be chosen. “Somehow he suited us,” explains Georg Rittler, former mayor of Plieningen, who as secretary takes care of the affairs of the chapel.
When asked what an Italian has to do with Bavarian brass music, Pirozzi almost has to laugh. He’s always asked that, says the conductor, who, after earning a horn diploma at the Roman Conservatory Santa Cecilia, a bachelor’s degree at the Detmold University of Music and a master’s degree at the Nuremberg University of Music, has been pursuing the postgraduate University course at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In his eyes, the traditional Bohemian-Bavarian folk music is a musical genre like any other, and for him and his fellow players it is “mutually stimulating”. Just playing traditional brass music is not enough for him. For him, great music is still Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. “The daily encounter with a quartet by Haydn, a symphony by Brahms or an opera by Wagner is indispensable for me, not only as an orchestra musician but also as a conductor.”
In May, the Geltinger will play in Munich to celebrate Richard Wagner’s 210th birthday
It’s the original works for wind orchestra that appeal to him – and there are enough of them, besides Beethoven, for example by Rossini or Shostakovich. An opportunity like the one to take part in the concert celebrating Richard Wagner’s 210th birthday in the Künstlerhaus on Lenbachplatz on May 21st is of course something very special for the conductor and the Geltinger Musikkapelle. They don’t shy away from big performances anyway: the people of Gelting have taken part in the traditional costume parade at the Oktoberfest several times.
Conductor Edoardo Pirozzi tells his musicians to “listen carefully”.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
And yet there is much more to leading a brass band than just the music. Much more important to him than the perfection of the musical performance, than the sophisticated interpretation of complicated orchestral music, is the social significance that his band has, says Pirozzi, who himself started out playing his horn in a band as a boy, but then quickly mastered the horn Studies made the leap to symphony orchestra. “An orchestra is like a team working towards the same goal.” Pirozzi teaches at the Ebersberg Music School and has conducted the youth wind orchestra there since 2016, and he sees the orchestra rehearsals more as lessons than rehearsals. But the most important thing is the community experience, “ten percent is music, 90 percent is the team effort.” Playing in an orchestra offers young people in particular “a concrete opportunity to grow into a healthy social environment.”
The brass band is well established in terms of age, about a third of the orchestra are young people
In fact, those responsible in Pliening can look forward to a relatively stable youth base, about 20 of the 60 active people are young people, reports Rittler. Since 2017, Christine Westermair has had its own director of the youth band, from whom the main band can always requisition young musicians. Since 2005 there has also been a cooperation with the music school in Poing, but this is now coming to an end due to increased cooperation between Poing and the music school in Vaterstetten. Again and again attempts are made to bring the musicians’ children into the chapel or to reactivate members who have temporarily left the band. It worked for Rittler’s daughter Steffi: After her childcare break, she now plays the clarinet again in the ensemble.
And no doubt Kapellmeister Pirozzi will do his part to uphold the long musical tradition in Gelting. When you watch him swing the baton with concentration, when he sets the rhythm with a short “babababa”, or when he sings the staccato to the musicians with “tatata”, you want to play along. Even if he spices up a note with an Italian expression – if it’s important to everyone, then he’ll translate it.