Barezzi is the festival that every music lover wants
The Barezzi Festival he came of age, returning for the 18th time to bring international music to Parma.
Barezzi confirms itself as a rarity in the Italian panorama. First of all because it is held in the historic places of Parma, a city that does not begin with M or R, and which is usually associated with opera, Verdi and good food. During these three days, however, Parma changes its skin and hosts some of the most interesting international artists around. We were at the second of the three days of the festival, and here’s how it went.
Zsela
It starts at 6pm with Zsela at the Carmine Auditorium. New York singer-songwriter born in ’95, based in Los Angeles, Zsela is a concentrate of contemporaneity, who perfectly embodies the melting pot of the American underground (and as we know, in pop music things always start from there).
Alone on stage, Zsela has an aura that fills the entire Auditorium. Charismatic but also emotional, at times fragile, like her music. It is no coincidence that the New York Times defined it as “earthly and otherworldly”.
Zsela’s performance ranges from a cappella moments, style parts spoken words, I whisper and sing at the top of my voice. The musical productions are of the highest level, and perfectly mix R&B, soul, country and electronic to give life to something new.
The debut album “Big for you” is in fact produced together with Daniel Aged, collaborator of Frank Ocean, as well as Rosalia, FKA Twigs and others. And you can feel it. The minimal style alternates with real walls of sound which, together with his deep vocality, hit like a punch in the stomach.
In the album, and in the live performance, the mainstream track is missing – although there are songs with a strong impact such as “Fire Escape” and “Not your angel” – which would perhaps allow her to broaden her audience and become a next big thing. But allow me to say, this rhetoric of “leap”, of making music for everyone, at all costs, is tiring and often does not produce the desired results.
The evocative atmosphere is exacerbated by the venue, a deconsecrated church from the 1200s renovated specifically for music (it is, in fact, part of the Arrigo Boito Conservatory complex).
This is the first of the striking things about Barezzi: the festival takes you to evocative places, unusual for this type of music, where listening becomes an immersive experience, in this case almost mystical, creating a profound connection between the artist and the public.
JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ
A similar statement applies to the Teatro Regio, a nineteenth-century opera house in typical Italian style, where we move to listen José González.
The theater is full and warmly welcomes the artist, Swedish but the son of Argentine parents, which explains, in addition to the name, the songs in different languages (English, Spanish, Swedish).
He arrives in Parma for his only Italian date, also alone, or rather with his guitars, with which he seems to have a vital relationship: he seems to speak to us, and on stage, immediately, one gets the impression that there are at least 2 or 3 musicians. He takes full advantage of the instrument’s polyphony and sings on it without any difficulty.
He retraces his repertoire and the albums “Local Valley” from 2021, “Vestiges & Claws” from 2015 and “Veneer” from 2003 emerge, revived in 2023 in a deluxe version. José immediately manifests what must be a key word linked to his music: nostalgia. He says it himself, laughing, “I will talk to you about nostalgia with the next songs”.
His is an elaborate but at the same time melodic virtuosity, which never dwells and reproduces textures of chords and harmonies that are never banal. The reference to Nick Drake it is frequent, but within its sound there is much more and it ranges across different regions of the world.
The audience is warm, they applaud him enthusiastically, a lot, to the point of forcing him to leave twice more after the end of the concert and granting 6 encores, among which the very successful covers of “Teardrop” by Massive Attack and “Blackbird” stand out. of the Beatles.
It’s clear to everyone that we are in front of a champion, and that we are listening to something that few would be able to do.
MARTA DEL GRANDI
The Barezzi day ends with the concert of Marta Del Grandi at Borgo Santa Brigida, a small club nestled in the alleys of Parma. Marta Del Grandi enchants us with her latest album “Selva”, a critically acclaimed album and candidate for the 2024 Tenco Awards as Best First Film. Marta has been on tour since the release of the album and has exceeded 70 dates, in Italy and abroad: “crazy!”she says.
What is striking, even live, is his freedom, compositional, vocal and scenic freedom. Everything sounds spontaneous, and the songs, performed in a trio with drums and keyboards/synth/violin, follow one another as if in an inspired stream of consciousness. She, guitar and voice, is hypnotic.
It is a music, and an artist, difficult to define – there is jazz, experimentalism, sophisticated songwriting, baroque pop. Marta Del Grandi is proof that you can make music – really – alternativeand even international, in Italy. And that it is possible for people to listen to it, journalists to write about it, and for audiences to go to concerts.
We have seen many young artists abandon decidedly interesting projects in English to throw themselves into Italian (perhaps often ill-advised) due to the rhetoric of make itof reaching the masses, of making the leap. But as we said before, this rhetoric has become tiring, and artists like Marta Del Grandi must be preserved within the Italian musical panorama.
Whether she then decides to sing in English, Italian or any other language, as long as she maintains the sincerity and desire for research and expression that distinguishes her, I’m sure she will reserve great surprises for us.
We heard three different concerts, immersed in three different locations, on the same day. Two international artists who don’t pass through Italy often, on the contrary. The third is an Italian artist, but without borders.
Artists of the highest level who deserve to be seen, even if you don’t know them, even if it’s not the your gender. And that’s what festivals are for.
Barezzi is the festival, in Italy, that can truly give the listening experience that any music lover desires.
