Pierino and the wolf was written by the great Russian composer Sergej Prokofiev in 1936. The idea of this show presented in Matera for the Polo Museale of Basilicata is to repropose the jazz version that the drummer Fioravanti had already thought years ago with the orchestra ( at the time with the help of Roberto Spadoni), but for small group (a quintet with sax, clarinets, vibraphone, double bass and drums) and reciting voice, with more ample space for improvisation, with original poetic texts commented live musicians, and a multi-final written by the children (during a workshop) also enriched by improvisations and some music composed for the occasion by Fioravanti himself.
The challenge for music and text was initially to maintain the original architecture, with the text of the fable almost intact and the original melodies respected even if reassigned to different instruments and above all expertly manipulated by musicians accustomed to using material from more varied origins mixing it up to get new sounds, new structures, new musical fragrances. Then there are variations on the theme, new plots, words that excite and improvisations. The result is a mix of lightness and intensity, in the marriage between the childish story of a child who is not afraid and the interweaving of epochal melodies, lyrical texts written by Silvana Kühtz and their meeting in real time with improvisation. The aim is to entertain big and small by telling a story with a new and stimulating sound frame, continuing with reflections on the values of life at the base of the story and ending with different final solutions, between a wolfhound and a modern animalistic Pierino.
The musicians involved, all profound connoisseurs of the jazz tradition and of the improvisational essence that is the soul of that same tradition: Ettore Fioravanti [drums, arrangements], Marco Colonna [soprano and bass clarinet], Francesco Lo Cascio [vibraphone], Igor Legari [ double bass), Gaetano Partipilo [alto saxophone] and Silvana Kühtz [voice in word and text].
The show was produced for the 2018 edition of the Piccolofestivaldellaparola di Noci (BA).