Press archive
What was written and broadcast about Harry Pepl: reviews, portraits, interviews and obituaries, with summary and source. The originals are protected by copyright and kept in the archive; we provide them to researchers and the press on request.
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9 November 2009 · Review · DE
NÖN Niederösterreichische Nachrichten (p. 49, culture): „KRITIK ‚musik aktuell‘“
Gottfried Sengstschmid
Review of a Christian Muthspiel Trio concert at the Stadtmuseum in the “musik aktuell” series: after “Dancing Dowland”, the hour-long encore recalled the Jazzzwio, among other pieces with Pepl’s “Da augschissene Wandersbuasch” and Pirchner’s “Hosent'Raga”.
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an Alpine ballad (Da augschissene Wandersbuasch) by the Viennese Harry Pepl
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20 March 2009 · Review · DE
Kronen Zeitung (p. 36, Styria): „Den Namen umweht Magie: JazzZwio hieß ein Duo, das in den 80-ern ...“
initials „MG“
Short review of “Live in Concerts” with DVD: JazzZwio with Pirchner and Pepl in Montreux in 1981, plus a live recording from Innsbruck. The closing sentence appears word for word as the page header on the old website page “Air, Love & Vitamins”.
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If there are classics of Austrian jazz, here is one!
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18 March 2009 · Review · DE
Falter (Seite w27, Lexikon: Neue Platten): „Neue Platten“ (JazzZwio: „Live in Concerts“)
initials „KN“
Record review of “Live in Concerts”: the recordings from the early 1980s show the energy of the two, who take turns as grooving accompanists, ranging from almost free passages to the melodious romanticism of “Air, Love & Vitamins”.
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The DVD contains the Montreux concert, excerpts from a performance at the Szene Wien and interview snippets.
With their JazzZwio, the guitarist Harry Pepl and the vibraphonist Werner Pirchner were internationally sought-after protagonists of Alpine groove.
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10 March 2009 · Review · DE
Die Presse (p. 27, arts section): „Tränen mit John Dowland“
initials „sam“ (Samir H. Köck)
Review of the presentation of “Dancing Dowland” by the Christian Muthspiel Trio at the Porgy & Bess.
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In the second set the trio played Pepl and Pirchner; Muthspiel told how Pirchner once announced a still untitled Pepl piece on stage as “Da augschissene Wandersbuasch” (roughly: the poor wretch of a wanderer), whereupon Pepl gave it the title “Air, Love & Vitamins”.
a composition that is now regarded as an Austrian jazz classic
Samir H. Köck (Kürzel „sam“)
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6 March 2009 · Review · DE
Der Standard (Print 6 March 2009, online 5 March 2009, Rubrik Musikrundschau): „Zwio und Trio“ (Neue Jazz-Alben von Werner Pirchner & Harry Pepl, Pablo Milanes & Chucho Valdes u. a.)
“Musikrundschau” (music roundup) with a short review of “Jazzzwio: Live in Concerts” (Universal): according to the text, Pirchner and Pepl are worth remembering, the duo of guitar and vibraphone having supplied model examples of heated chamber music.
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The DVD is called a must. The date, 13 February 2009, is derived from the article number.
Harry Pepl, a complex guitarist of truly international stature
The creative fury, the intensity achieved there still seems to set the standard today.
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24 February 2009 · Review · DE
KULTUR, Zeitschrift für Kultur und Gesellschaft (Dornbirn): „JazzZwio: Live in Concerts“ (CD-Tipp)
Peter Füssl
CD recommendation by Peter Füssl in KULTUR, a cultural magazine from Vorarlberg, Austria, for the CD/DVD “Live in Concerts” (Universal, 2009).
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Füssl recalls the legendary JazzZwio of Pepl and Werner Pirchner between 1977 and 1985 and describes the contents: 43 minutes from the 15th Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) in 1981 and excerpts from concerts at the Szene Wien in Vienna (1983) and the Konservatoriumssaal in Innsbruck, Austria (1984), with pieces such as “The Day We Know Paul Desmond is Gone”, “Against The Wind”, “Hosent’Raga” and “Air Love And Vitamins”. He calls the two “absolute individualists” whose interplay adds up to far more than the sum of its parts, notes that so far mainly the Muthspiel brothers (the Austrian jazz musicians Christian and Wolfgang Muthspiel) have kept their memory alive, and hopes the recordings will bring the Jazzzwio wider recognition, above all among younger musicians.
Great moments of brilliantly offbeat music and gnarled humour
the playful wit of these two strong characters, one Viennese and one Tyrolean to the core, still sounds fresh as morning dew more than 25 years after the recordings were made
On the CD/DVD “Live in Concerts” (2009) with Jazzzwio concerts from 1981 to 1984; Pepl was Viennese, Werner Pirchner Tyrolean, and each brought his own regionally coloured humour into the music
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20 February 2009 · Review · DE
Die Presse (Online): „Wolfgang Schalk: Wanted“
Samir H. Köck
Short review of the album “Wanted” by the Styrian guitarist Wolfgang Schalk, recorded in Los Angeles. It singles out the piece “And Harry Said Goodbye”, which Schalk dedicated to Harry Pepl.
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Particularly beautiful is ‘And Harry Said Goodbye’, dedicated to the unforgotten colleague Harry Pepl.
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13 February 2009 · Review · DE
Die Presse (Online): „Jazzzwio, Live In Concerts“ (Zwio Infernal)
Samir H. Köck
Short review of the reissue of the 1981 Montreux concert (EmArcy/Universal). The text pays tribute to the duo of guitar and vibraphone as unusual chamber music of the 1980s, whose cascades of sound, the text says, have stayed in the memory of contemporaries.
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The superb guitarist Harry Pepl and his perfectly matched partner
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18 January 2009 · Review · DE
Kurier (p. 38, culture section): „JAZZZWIO: Harry Pepl & Werner Pirchner (Universal)“
Werner Rosenberger (initials „ros“)
Short review of the reissue “Live in Concerts” with audio and video recordings from Montreux 1981 and Innsbruck 1984.
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Two original home-grown musicians, both of whom had to go far too soon and are unforgotten
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22 September 2008 · Review
All About Jazz (US-Jazzmagazin im Internet, gegründet 1995): „Wolfgang Schalk: Wanted“
Mark F. Turner
Review of the album “Wanted” (Frame Up Music, 2008) by the guitarist Wolfgang Schalk from Styria, Austria, in All About Jazz, the US online jazz magazine founded in 1995, with 4 out of 5 stars.
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Schalk recorded the album in Los Angeles, USA, with Geoffrey Keezer (piano), Dave Carpenter (bass) and Marvin “Smitty” Smith (drums). Mark F. Turner singles out the moving ballad “And Harry Said Goodbye”, which Schalk dedicated to Harry Pepl; he calls Pepl a European guitar master and one of Schalk’s influences. Schalk’s tone and phrasing on this piece are delicate and warm.
There’s also moving balladry as heard on the emotive “And Harry Said Goodbye,” dedicated to another Schalk influence, European guitar master, Harry Pepl.
From the review of Wolfgang Schalk’s album “Wanted” (2008); the guitarist from Styria, Austria, dedicated the ballad to Harry Pepl, who had died in 2005
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3 October 2007 · Review · DE
Kleine Zeitung (p. 63, culture): „Charakterkopf, kunstsinnig geschliffen“
Otmar Klammer
Review of the Christian Muthspiel Trio’s Pirchner/Pepl programme on Monday, 1 October 2007, at the Generalmusikdirektion in Graz: a grand concert of touching chamber-music intimacy, in which Pirchner’s compositions were in the foreground and Pepl was only touched upon.
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Harry Pepl, Pirchner’s congenial partner in the legendary “Jazzzwio”
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27 September 2007 · Review · DE
Kronen Zeitung (p. 47): „Den Konventionen ausweichen“ (Gedenken an die Jazzlegenden Pepl & Pirchner)
initials „PB“
Review of the Christian Muthspiel Trio concert at the Posthof in Linz (Upper Austria, Austria) on Tuesday, 25 September 2007, with Pirchner’s film “Der Untergang des Alpenlandes”: the trio renders the scores with spherical lightness yet vital expression.
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Both are remembered for the illustrious coherence of their compositional and improvisational interplay.
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11 June 2007 · Review · DE
NÖN Niederösterreichische Nachrichten (p. 50, culture): „KRITIK Schräges Sprach- und Klangspiel“
Gottfried Sengstschmid
Review of Christian Muthspiel’s evening at the Stadttheater in Wiener Neustadt (Lower Austria, Austria) during the “Wiener Neustädter Frühling”: after the Jandl solo performance, the trio with Franck Tortiller and Georg Breinschmid paid homage to Pirchner and Pepl.
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a homage to Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl, a jaunty if wistful remembrance of the two colourful birds of the former “Jazz-Zwio”
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18 April 2007 · Review · DE
Falter (p. 66, Kultur: Neue Platten): „Neue Platten“ (Chr. Muthspiel Trio: „Against the Wind“)
initials „K. N.“
Record review: in an only gently ironic, rather romantic way the album combines blues with Alpine elements, for instance in Pepl’s “Die alte Mär und das Mann”, and in the dialogue of trombone, marimba, vibraphone and bass creates a mostly light-footed groove.
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The album by the elder of the two Muthspiel brothers is dedicated to the work of the twin stars Harry Pepl and Werner Pirchner, who have sadly already left us
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15 April 2007 · Review · DE
Kleine Zeitung (p. 111, culture): „Schatz“ (CD-Kritik zu „Against The Wind“)
initials „TSC“
Short review of the album “Against The Wind” (Universal): Christian Muthspiel finds an ingenious translation for the music that belongs to his “innermost vocabulary”; Pirchner’s film comes as a DVD bonus.
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It is a “hats off!” to the most original Jazzzwio from Tyrol to Texas: the late Harry Pepl & Werner Pirchner.
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15 April 2007 · Review · DE
Neue Vorarlberger Tageszeitung (p. 77, culture): „Pepl und Pirchner in besten Händen“
Martin Juen
Review of the Christian Muthspiel Trio concert at the Spielboden in Dornbirn on Friday, 13 April 2007: the trio refreshes the pieces respectfully, and in every arrangement fresh fruit grows on old ground. Juen dates the Jazzzwio to 1978 to 1985.
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Harry Pepl (1945-2005) and Werner Pirchner (1940-2001) were rather different and yet outstanding personalities of the Austrian jazz scene
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2007 · Review · DE
Concerto (music magazine), issue 2/2007, p. 6 (CD-Tipps): „Born in Austria“ (CD-Tipp zu „Against The Wind“)
Alfred Krondraf
Short review of the album “Against The Wind. The Music Of Pirchner & Pepl” by the Christian Muthspiel Trio with Georg Breinschmid and Franck Tortiller: Muthspiel devotes himself for the second time to the music of the “two musical free spirits”, and Tortiller turns “the Zwio into a more than perfect trio”; the substance of the interpretations only reveals itself on repeated listening.
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Christian Muthspiel now devotes himself for the second time to the music of the two musical free spirits
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30 April 2006 · Review · DE
Kleine Zeitung (p. 86, culture): „Der spürbare Geist des Komponisten“ (GrazJazz 2006)
Franz Remmalk (Schreibung laut APA)
Review of the third day of GrazJazz 2006: with his new trio Christian Muthspiel arranged the music of Pirchner and that of his long-time musical companion Pepl; with Franck Tortiller on vibraphone the result was a superbly polished concert with a strikingly transparent sound.
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a superbly polished concert that lingered on long afterwards, piece by piece
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29 April 2006 · Review · DE
Kronen Zeitung (p. 25): „Zu einer Hommage an Werner Pirchner und Harry Pepl geriet der …“ (GrazJazz 2006)
initials „TS“
Short review of the third evening of GrazJazz 2006 at the Orpheum in Graz (Austria): Christian Muthspiel, Franck Tortiller and Georg Breinschmid paid homage to the music of Pirchner and Pepl, a demanding and dignified tribute.
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finally Christian Muthspiel, Franck Tortiller and Breinschmid paid homage to the music of the two recently deceased exceptional talents
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6 November 2004 · Review · DE
APA-Basisdienst (APA0059, culture): „‚Es fehlen die Visionäre‘: Dennoch hohes Niveau im heimischen Jazz“ (Salzburger Jazzherbst 2004)
Christoph Lindenbauer
Assessment of the Austrian concerts at the ninth Salzburger Jazzherbst (jazz festival in Salzburg, Austria).
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As one of two truly risky projects the APA (Austria Presse Agentur, national news agency) names the “Habanero” slide show, in which young horn players improvised to Pepl’s sounds and Rainer Rygalyk’s pictures.
The photographer Rainer Rygalyk and the former world-class guitarist Harry Pepl invited young horn players to improvise over sampled sounds and pictures.
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31 August 2004 · Review · DE
Der Standard (p. 24, culture): „Sicherheitsdenken und ‚positive Signale‘“ (Ausklang des Jazzfestivals Saalfelden 2004)
Andreas Felber
Report from the Saalfelden jazz festival 2004. In one of his rare solo concerts, on Sunday, 29 August 2004, Wolfgang Muthspiel reflected, among other things, the playing of his teacher Pepl.
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the rugged rhapsodic style of a Harry Pepl
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18 May 2004 · Review · DE
Salzburger Nachrichten (p. 12, culture): „JAZZ“ (Wolfgang Muthspiel: „Air, Love & Vitamins“)
Short review of Wolfgang Muthspiel’s trio album “Air, Love & Vitamins” (Quinton Records) with Marc Johnson and Brian Blade, whose title comes from Pepl’s composition, with concert dates in Salzburg, Freistadt and Vienna.
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The title comes from a composition by the grand old master of jazz guitar, Harry Pepl
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17 December 2003 · Review · DE
Kurier (p. 30, culture): „Exzellente Musiker und exzellente Musik“ (Österreichische Jazz-Produktionen 2003)
Werner Rosenberger
Review of the year’s Austrian jazz releases with gift tips. From the “Austrian Jazzart” series Rosenberger singles out the concert recording “Live at Miles Smiles” by Pepl, Pirchner and Georg Polansky.
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Very lively, too, an almost historic live recording, “Live at Miles Smiles”
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22 November 2003 · Review · DE
Kronen Zeitung (p. 30): „Nostalgische Bruderschaft“ (Muthspiel und Muthspiel im Grazer M59)
initials „ME“
Review of Christian and Wolfgang Muthspiel’s evening at the Graz jazz club M59 in Münzgrabenstraße 59 with compositions by Pirchner, the film “Der Untergang des Alpenlandes” and the programme “Early Music”.
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At the same venue the brothers had heard the Jazzzwio as young listeners.
25 years ago the Muthspiel brothers themselves sat in the audience at Münzgrabenstraße 59 and marvelled at Werner Pirchner and Harry Pepl.
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24 January 2003 · Review · DE
Neue Vorarlberger Tageszeitung (p. 41, culture): „Diffizile Jazz-Spielereien“
Martin Juen
Review of the concert by the Wolfgang Muthspiel Trio with Marc Johnson and Brian Blade on Wednesday, 22 January 2003, at the Spielboden in Dornbirn (Vorarlberg, Austria), opening the “Jazz&” series.
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Alongside Thelonious Monk and Vince Mendoza, Muthspiel paid tribute to his teacher Pepl in the programme.
Muthspiel’s most formative teacher, Harry Pepl
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28 November 2002 · Review · DE
Salzburger Nachrichten (p. 14, culture): „Heimweh, Jodler und Zwiefache“
initials „PAC“
Short review of Wolfgang and Christian Muthspiel’s homage to the Jazzzwio on Tuesday, 26 November 2002, at the Ziegelstadel in Hallein (Salzburg, Austria).
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It starts from the Jazzzwio piece “Homesick”, whose homesickness leaves open whether it is for faraway places or for home itself.
the duo also made audible the timeless aesthetic qualities of a music that has lost nothing of its relevance
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26 August 2002 · Review · DE
Salzburger Nachrichten (p. 10, culture): „Grooven nach Mitternacht“ (Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2002)
Clemens Panagl
Report from the 24th International Jazzfestival Saalfelden (Salzburg, Austria). On Saturday, 24 August 2002, Christian and Wolfgang Muthspiel paid tribute to Pepl and Pirchner and showed how relevant the Pirchner and Pepl oeuvre still is.
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Avalanches of sound also characterise the playing of the Austrian guitarist Harry Pepl.
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2001 · Review · DE
Concerto (music magazine), issue 5/2001, p. 54: „Fünf Variationen österreichischer Jazzkunst“ (Austrian Jazzart)
Jörg Weitlaner
Joint review of the first five CDs of Universal Music’s Austrian Jazzart series (reissues of Austrian jazz albums).
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First comes “Light Blues” by Air Mail, the quartet’s second and last record, with Wolfgang Puschnig, Wolfgang Reisinger and Mike Richmond. Pepl describes the band’s “telepathic understanding”; the review quotes from the liner notes (by Andreas Felber according to Discogs) his playing “marked by rough, jagged cascades of notes” and highlights the then still young MIDI technology. For Wolfgang Puschnig’s “Pieces Of The Dream” (No. 5) Pepl is named among the duo partners.
playing marked by rough, jagged cascades of notes
Andreas Felber
The interplay of the whole band, in which we had developed a telepathic understanding, was what made Airmail special for me.
Looking back in 2001 on his quartet Air Mail
Harry Pepl
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26 November 2000 · Review · DE
Neue Zeit (p. 38, culture): „Die Moderne in der Perkussion“
Andreas Fellinger
Review of an evening of Berndt Luef’s “Autumn Concerts” at the Forum Stadtpark in Graz (Austria): STUDIO PERCUSSION graz, just back from a drum festival in Seoul, played works by Adriana Hölszky and Iannis Xenakis and Pepl’s “Zeitraffer” with tape.
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ORF (Austria’s public broadcaster) recorded the concert for its programme “Zeit-Ton”.
a brilliant, atmospherically dense, wildly grooving “Zeitraffer” by Harry Pepl
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5 April 2000 · Review · DE
NÖN Niederösterreichische Nachrichten (p. 18, culture): „Im Zentrum der Einkreisung“ (Uraufführung von Harry Pepls grandiosem „Zeitraffer“ im Schömer-Haus)
Ewald Baringer
Review of the premiere of “Zeitraffer” for percussion ensemble and tape on Saturday, 1 April 2000, at the Schömer-Haus in Klosterneuburg (Lower Austria, Austria), in the concert series of the Essl Collection.
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The six musicians of STUDIO PERCUSSION graz played on the circular galleries around the audience; Baringer heard a deeply feeling, very contemporary musician and hoped the piece would come out on CD.
A truly brilliant stroke by the legendary guitarist and composer.
A play with waves and tides, in the pull of the speed of the moment
On his work “Zeitraffer”, 2000
Harry Pepl
This was no bloodless composer at work, but a deeply feeling, very contemporary musician who has emotion and creative intelligence equally at his disposal.