Chamber jazz

Entry photo: Finefones Saxophone Quartet in July 2022

I had already completed my compulsory program in Bad Wimpfen during my school days. The Bad Wimpfen monastery in the valley impressed me the most, not because the old walls were in a pretty bad condition, but because we students got to see the many bones in the basement of the monastery.

Today, more than 40 years later, they succeeded Hans Hambucher to lure me to Bad Wimpfen and specifically to said St. Peter im Tal. But not to admire the renovated cloister or the more than 100 grave slabs, which have now been donated by the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Knights' Monastery of St. Peter zu Bad Wimpfen im Tal e. V in front of the outer walls of the cloister, but around it Finefone Saxophone Quartet to listen, but then in the cloister of the monastery.

First of all, a big compliment to the club, which has been receiving it since 2003 of the monastery dedicated, which is all the more important because in 2006 the branch of the Benedictine Abbey in Wimpfen had to be given up. And so some things have improved a lot since my last visit. And the association will probably succeed in ensuring that “St. Peter im Tal ... [should] remain a place where the praise of God is celebrated, a place where God is sought and seekers are welcomed in order to receive strengthening in spirit and body."

Now back to today's four saxophonists: Peter Lehel played the soprano saxophone and developed a range that I would not have thought possible. Pirmin Ullrich played the baritone saxophone, which I'm becoming more and more sympathetic to since I'm having more and more trouble with the higher notes. The tenor saxophone was made by Christian Steuber played and Carola Krettenauer stepped in at short notice as alto saxophone.

And so the meanwhile 12th matinee of this benefit concert "Classic in the Cloister" was a real pleasure. Hans Hambucher hadn't promised too much: "The euphony and diversity of the saxophone is celebrated here in the finest fourfold form with the subtle facets of sound culture and energy. The whole saxophone family pure ... improvised in rousing arrangements and compositions by Peter Lehel.” My better half and I really liked it, as did the 150 or so other visitors.